


Honor your legacy

by MiSa_0



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, BAMF Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto), Big Brother Kakashi, Big sister Shizune, Cousin Shikamaru, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 (Naruto)-centric, Dai-nana-han | Team 7 as Family (Naruto), F/M, Godparents Jiraiya and Tsunade, I gave up on canon timeline because IT SUCKS, Namikaze Kakashi and Namikaze Naruto, OOC characters, Uncle Shikaku and Aunt Yoshino, Weird brother Gai, genius naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21674614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiSa_0/pseuds/MiSa_0
Summary: What if Naruto had a high IQ and had found his parents house? A genius, strong and informed Naruto strives to be the best shinobi he can possibly be.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 70
Kudos: 376





	1. Prologue of sorts: Happy-go-lucky image is born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How it starts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> This is just a little intro.  
> I had 3 chapters of this story posted at the fanfiction.net, but I decided to edit the story and continue to post it here.  
> I hope you like it!

It was a normal day in Konohagakure. However, a blond boy with bright blue eyes was very excited since he was eight years old and would finally start the ninja academy.

This boy was Namikaze Naruto, son of one Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, also known as Konoha’s Yellow Flash and of one Namikaze Kushina (née Uzumaki Kushina), Princess of Whirlpool, also known as Red Hot-Blooded Habanero (by her classmates and later fellow Konoha ninjas) or Red Death (by her enemies). Not that he knew about it. For what he knew, he was Uzumaki Naruto and was an orphan, unwanted by the villagers and most of the shinobi of Konoha.

In fact, very few people in the entire village know who Naruto really is. And these as well as another few people will become the family that he always wished for, he just doesn’t know it. Yet!

\---

Later that day, Naruto could be seen walking dejectedly around the village - his day wasn’t as good as he was expecting.

 _‘Why? Why does everyone hate me so much?’_ He thinks, feeling more upset than usual with the village’s treatment. _‘I never did anything to them!’_

After walking around for a few hours, he decided that moping around wouldn’t solve anything and walked away towards his apartment. He had long ago stopped crying about the way people treated him, but he still looked upset sometimes.

That day, when he finally was within the safety of his apartment, he decided that he would never again give people the satisfaction of seeing him hurt because of their treatment.

However, he was much more intelligent than anyone gives him credit. He knew that if the Hokage and the little family from the Ichiraku Ramen suddenly saw him with a poker face would worry about him and now that something was happening. So, that day the happy-go-lucky that everyone would come to know was born from all the suffering he had to endure in his short life.


	2. Ready for his graduation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened since Naruto was eight until he was twelve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second chapter.  
> I hope you like it! :)

Almost four years passed by after Naruto’s decision to show a happy-go-lucky image to the village and the time for his graduation from the ninja academy was approaching fast. He was able to slowly establish and maintain his mask, but his personality, knowledge and his body built changed a lot since then.

Everything started when, three months after he began the academy, he was wandering in the forests around Konoha and he noticed a strange imprint on the ground written in kanji. One of his classmates had pushed him into the ground as they were leaving the academy, so he was bleeding a bit from his knee. As a tiny drop of blood fell on the strange marking when he crouched down to check it, Naruto heard a puff and suddenly he was looking at a large house.

 _‘What is going on?’_ He starts questioning himself, confused. _‘This house wasn’t here before.’_

He stayed there a few seconds, weighing his options.

_‘Oh! Might as well explore a bit. It doesn’t seem like anyone visited this place in a while…’_

He might have been a little genius, but he still was a curious child. So he quietly entered the house, not knowing that his life would change after this experience.

As soon as he reached the living room, he saw the strangest thing he ever saw in his short life... On a shelf there was a photo of the Yondaime Hokage and a beautiful and very pregnant red-haired woman that he presumed was Minato’s wife. But that wasn't what surprised him since he already suspected that no one had lived in the house for quite a while. No, what was strange was that there were two letters on either side of the frame with ‘Naruto’ written in the center of each, but in different calligraphies.

He could only assume that one was from the Yondaime and the other was, probably from his wife. Now, why the Yondaime’s wife decided to write him a letter he could only guess.

Suddenly, all pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place. He already knew that he had the Kyuubi sealed inside him, so he could easily understand why the Yondaime would want to say something to him, but why the guy’s wife would want to say anything to him? Unless… It made complete sense! He was blond with blue eyes like the Yondaime and he was, for some coincidence, chosen to be the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi? Naruto didn’t think the man he admired above anyone else would go around and take a random person to bear this burden, which means that the only reasonable explanation was that he was the son of the Yondaime and his beautiful red-haired wife…

Now that he thought about it, of course, someone would trust his or her son before any other person. Besides, being the Hokage, the blond couldn’t ask someone to offer himself or herself or even someone’s child for the sake of the village, when he wasn’t ready to do the same.

 _‘If I’m right, I’m the son of my hero.’_ He thought happily. However, a sudden thought made him want to slap his forehead. _‘I can’t believe I didn’t see this before… I’m nearly his spitting image.’_

He hoped he wasn’t mistaken since he would be devastated if he got his hopes up just to be proved wrong in the end. He always dreamt of finding out who his parents were and now he felt that his dream might have come true.

Making a snap decision, he quickly reached for the letter on the right side of the frame and opened it. It said:

**“Dear Naruto,**

**If you're reading this is because I'm dead along with your father.**

**Minato probably didn't say much to you in that letter of his, since he doesn't know that I'm going after him to fight against the Kyuubi and he is probably counting on me to explain you everything when you're old enough to hear it, but now that I’m dead I guess this letter will have to do.**

**Everything you need to know about my life and jutsus, as well as your father’s, are in the library in our personal diaries and in our notes. I’m kind of pressured by time so you will have to search for it on your own, but my advice is that you find the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and learn it since it will help you go over everything faster.**

**You also need to know that the Kyuubi attack wasn’t an accident, the Kyuubi was being controlled by a Sharingan user. An Uchiha masked man interrupted your father when he was restoring the seal that contained the Kyuubi in my body since it was weak from giving birth to you. He was able to separate us and extract the Kyubi out of my body, only my special chakra saved me from dying in the process.**

**I probably couldn’t stop it so your father has sealed it inside of you, but he had to die for it to happen. I’m sure you’ll learn the details when you become the seal master you’re destined to be if you aren’t one already.**

**I hope you and Kashi-kun were able to take care of each other while growing up. Please, don’t blame yourselves for the attack or our deaths and know that we, myself and your father will always love you two.**

**Your mother,**

**Namikaze Kushina”**

As he finished reading his mother’s letter, he had tears streaming down his face, not only had he finally discovered who his parents were but he also couldn’t be more proud of who they were and how they sacrificed their lives for the village.

He felt somehow lighter after learning that his mother was a jinchuriki of the Kyuubi before him. He still remembered when he first met the Kyubi two months before.

_Start of flashback_

It was only a month after he started the academy when he found himself in a small and usually unused training ground following the instruction that his academy’s sensei gave him and his classmates to unlock their chakra.

As his chakra started to flow through his whole body, he felt like he was being pulled inside himself, his vision began to blacken and he promptly fell unconscious. When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the training ground but in what looked like a sewer staring directly at what looked like an enormous prison cell.

At first, he was a bit afraid since he suddenly heard a loud growl coming from the cage and a giant orange being whose form he couldn’t recognize started to slowly raise itself from the ground, looking intently at him with big red eyes. However, he knew that whatever it was he couldn’t show his fear or he might be attacked, that was just how nature worked.

“Hello.” Naruto said in a soft and calm voice after deciding to try to talk to the giant being. “I’m not trying to be rude, but who are you and where are we?”

The being just stared at the blond boy with what seemed to be surprise but before it could say anything, Naruto saw the being had 9 tails and quickly put the pieces together.

“Wait a minute!” He exclaimed suddenly before the now identified being could say anything. “You are the Kyuubi no Yoko! I thought you were dead but I guess the information I have is wrong. Unless… I’m dead too?”

Naruto saw the Kyuubi blink a few times and for his confusion and amazement, it started to laugh. It was a terrifying laughter yet it didn’t seem like an evil one but more like one full of mirth.

 **“I have to say, you are an interesting human, gaki!”** The giant fox said still chuckling a bit. **“You are the first little one I ever met that isn’t terrified of me.”**

Naruto stared at the nine-tailed fox with confusion and disbelief.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand…” He stated looking genuinely baffled. “Why should I be afraid of you?”

Still staring at the Kyuubi, Naruto couldn’t fathom what he should be afraid of. Wasn’t the fox locked away in the cell? Wasn’t he out of the demon’s reach?

 **“I don’t even know if I should laugh or feel offended…”** Kyuubi trailed of. **“I killed hundreds of people in your village, normal people would be afraid of me.”**

“Well, I assumed you were locked in there and couldn’t get out because of that strange piece of paper on the door with the kanji for seal.” Naruto answered in a matter of fact tone. “Besides, you didn’t answer me when I asked if I was dead, so I don’t have to worry about you killing me if I am.”

 **“That actually makes sense...”** Kyuubi decided, sweat-dropping.

After a long moment of silence in what the giant fox seemed to be contemplating something, Naruto decided to get back on track.

“So… Am I?” He asks expectantly.

 **“Are you what, k…gaki?”** Was the Kyuubi’s counter-question.

“Am I dead?” The blond repeats

 **“No, you’re not. You’re in your mind space”** The fox answered seemingly resigned. **“The story your generation was told was a lie. You can’t kill a Bijuu! Your Yondaime sealed me inside a baby after I was forced to attack Konoha…”**

“Oh!” Naruto whispered sadly. “So you are sealed inside me… I guess now I know why the villagers and some shinobi treat me like they do. Some think that I am you and for the others, I am a constant reminder of what they lost...”

 **“Rrrr! I can’t believe I’m saying this!”** The Kyubi grumbled. **“But it’s not your fault. That is why I hate humans! They always seem to find a scapegoat without caring if it’s the real culprit. You shouldn’t be mistreated because of what I did, you are far from being that great.”**

After a moment of stunned silence, Naruto remembered something that he didn’t understand from the fox’s speech.

“What is a Bijuu?” He suddenly inquired curiously.

 **“Is what the tailed-beasts are called.”** Kyuubi answered grudgingly.

“Tailed-beasts?” Naruto asked. “You’re not the only one?”

 **“We are nine but I’m the strongest one since I have more tails and you are what humans called a jinchuriki because you are the host of a tailed-beast. Now get out of here! I’m done answering your damn questions!”** The fox roared and pushed its red chakra towards Naruto, effectively sending the blond out of his mindscape.

_End of flashback_

After this incident, he was a bit upset that he had to hold back the Kyuubi when he wasn’t even a ninja yet, surely some talented shinobi would be more adequate for the job. Now, he felt a bit relieved because he was doing something his mother did before him.

When he felt that he was calm enough, he opened his father’s letter and it said:

**“Dear Naruto,**

**I hope that your mother already explained everything to you. However, I need to tell you why I did it.**

**As the Hokage, I couldn’t ask someone to offer their child to hold the Kyuubi when I wasn’t ready to the same. You see the sealing jutsu I used to seal the Kyuubi in you wouldn’t have held so well if it wasn’t done in a baby since the babies don’t have their chakra coils completely formed yet and the person performing the jutsu dies automatically in the process.**

**I’m sorry Naruto! I’m sorry that you have to live with this burden and that I’m not there to support you! I hope the village treats you like the hero you are.**

**You have all the right to hate me, but know that I will always believe in you! You are strong Naruto! How could you not be? You are my son.**

**I know I have no right to act all fatherly and ask you anything, but please take care of your mother and Kashi for me.**

**I hope one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.**

**I love you, my son. Forever!**

**Namikaze Minato”**

Naruto had to read the letter a few times to fully comprehend what his father was saying to him.

 _‘Dad!’_ He thought in angst, starting to cry again. His painful sobs nothing like the slow and quiet tears that streamed down his face when he read his mother’s letter.

“How could you think that I could ever hate you, dad?” He whispered in between sobs. “I’m so proud of who you were!”

After what seemed like hours of silence to him but were only a few minutes, he was finally able to stop crying.

“You were forced to sacrifice yourself and your son to save this village but its inhabitants spit on your grave every day by treating me like trash, therefore going against your dying wish.” The blond boy spoke again. “However, you didn’t have a choice, so there’s no way I could hate you. I will always love you and I will do everything to make sure I honor your wish! I can’t protect mom since she’s dead too but I give you my word that I will find out who this Kashi that you and mom mentioned is and I will take care of him. And I never go back on my word, that’s my nindo!”

\---

Five hours later, he was on the floor breathing heavily and with a mouth splitting grin on his face. He was able to find the scroll with the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and learned it successfully but it took a lot out of him so he needed to recharge his energy. Naruto didn’t know at the time, but it was quite impressive that he was able to master that jutsu at the young age of 8 years old.

When he had been able to gather enough energy to stand up, he noticed that it was already completely dark outside. He was thinking of staying in the house for the night, but suddenly his stomach rumbled. However, as he looked in the kitchen cupboards he was surprised to find some food that seemed in good condition. He was only puzzled for a few seconds since he promptly noticed a strange piece of paper in the cupboards’ doors so he easily deduced that his father had used some sort of sealing jutsu to keep the food fresh seeing that his father seemed to have been good with sealing.

After a quick dinner, he realized that it was barely past eight at night so he decided to head towards the library to explore it a bit. As he entered the room, he stopped in his tracks at the door with his mouth hanging open. He had never seen a room so beautiful as his parents’ library. He had been there before to look for the scroll with the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but he didn’t really look at the room.

Completely entering the library, he found himself lost in the information he could take from the room. One of the first things he noticed was a photo where his father was accompanied by two boys and a girl, probably a genin team he got to teach. The girl had brown hair, brown eyes and strange marks in her cheeks; the boy on the left had black hair and black eyes that was easily identified as an Uchiha; the other boy had a strange silver color to his hair and black eyes using a dark mask that covered more than half of his face. As he turned it around, it read “Team seven consisting of Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, and Nohara Rin, led by jounin Namikaze Minato”.

“I guess now I know who is the person dad asked me to take care of.” Naruto spoke to no one but then wondered. “The guy is much older than me and seems to be a level headed person, why would dad want me to take care of someone like him?”

For many, it might have seemed silly to automatically assume that the Kashi person that Minato talked about in his letter and Hatake Kakashi were one and the same. However, Naruto didn’t have any doubts that he was right, he felt some strange connection with the silver-haired boy in the picture and knew it had to be him that his father was talking about. Besides the guy looked kind of cool, like what an older brother would be like.

Putting his mind back on track, he quickly folded his parent’s journals and was gone to find a room for the night, deciding to explore the rest the following day and start reading the journals in bed. Too tired to look around much, he decided to stay in the master bedroom that night. The little blond found some old pajamas that suited him somehow and he guessed they were from his father when he was younger.

When he was finally in bed, he started to read his father’s journal but quickly fell asleep.

\---

The following day, Naruto woke up around six. It was fairly early, but he still thanked God for being Saturday since that meant that he had the whole weekend to explore the house.

The little blond made some breakfast and ate it before creating a few Kage Bunshin to explore the house and the scrolls from the library while he read his parents’ journals.

He opened first the one that belonged to Minato. It seemed to start with his father’s days as a genin, how he saved Kushina from being kidnapped and who were some of his friends. Naruto learned that the older blond was already an accomplished shinobi by the time he was a genin and that his sensei was Jiraya of the Sannin, a self-proclaimed ‘Super Pervert’, who later made Minato his apprentice.

Naruto also learned the story of the creation of the new team 7 led by Minato as well as Kakashi’s life story until before the older blond’s death. He read how the silver-haired boy lost his father and was sort of adopted by Minato but the little guy seemed adverse to accept help in the beginning. He learned how the other members of the team died and Kakashi’s feelings of guilt over his teammates’ deaths. He also read that the silver-haired, by that time, jounin had been chosen for anbu by Minato himself when he became Hokage and received the code name “Inu”.

After learning that little piece of information, he suddenly stopped reading, startled by what it made him remember. There was an anbu that always took care of Naruto, much more than any other person in the village even counting the Hokage and Teuchi and Ayame from the Ichiraku. That anbu had a dog-like mask and the Hokage always called him Inu. Naruto had felt connected with him like he was family but the masked nin acted like a big brother so he didn't see more into it. However, at that moment everything finally made sense.

 _‘He must have been unable to take care of me as himself so he used his anbu alias to still be there for me.’_ Naruto thought, not knowing how to feel about that revelation. _‘Of course! It’s probably well known that he was dad’s student and since I look like dad if he hung around with me, dad’s enemies would be all over Konoha trying to kill me. But he disappeared two months before my anbu protection ended when I became an academy student, so... He might have been forced to step down from anbu. He didn’t leave me because he wanted to!’_

He was so happy with the conclusions he reached that he had to force himself not to jump up and down in excitement or fall down on the ground crying his eyes out, it was like the tension that he had accumulated in his small body that he didn’t even know existed melted away. He was starting to think that maybe the kind anbu never really cared for him and that the fact that he took care of him was only because the masked nin was focused on the mission that was handed to him and Naruto was seeing a connection where there wasn’t one because of the older boy’s caring nature. But at that moment the little blond was sure that Kakashi genuinely cared for him.

After a deep breath, he started reading again. He discovered that even in anbu, Kakashi was having trouble focusing on the missions and was still deeply depressed over his teammates’ deaths. He learned how his father reacted to his mother’s pregnancy, that he was named after a character of Jiraiya’s best book, making the white-haired man his godfather and the worries that the Sandaime and his wife Biwako lifted about the seal breaking during the childbirth. He read that his father gave Kakashi the mission of protecting his mother and him in hopes to get him to keep the silver-haired boy’s head above the water as well as his parents’ intention of adopting Kakashi officially after his birth if the silver-haired fourteen years old agreed with it.

Looking at the clock after he finished reading his father's journal, he noticed it was already noon so he ate a quick lunch and started with his mother's one.

Most of the information was the same but his mother's journal started when she came to Konoha to be the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. He read about his mother's friends, how she fell in love with his father, her thoughts about preferring Obito over Kakashi as well as her change of heart about the little silver-haired jounin who she came to love like a son after Obito and Rin's deaths and her choice of making Senju Tsunade who had been Kushina's sensei, before the blond woman left the village, his godmother.

When he finished, seeing it was still early for dinner and that he wasn't hungry, he sat processing everything he learned about his parents’ lives.

A few minutes later, the single clone that was exploring the property, with the exception of the library that was being explored by a few other clones, dispelled himself and Naruto received a detailed map of the property. Since he had an eidetic memory, something he seemed to get from his father, it was really easy to remember everything that existed inside and outside of the house.

After spending the afternoon thinking about what to do with the information he gained and having a quick dinner, Naruto sat on the sofa processing what his clones, who dispelled soon after he ate, found in the library.

“Let’s see!” He thought out loud. “All the Ninjutsu mom and dad learned… Mom’s Kenjutsu style… Dad’s Taijutsu style as well as mom’s… The Fuinjutsu belonging to the Uzumaki family, dad, and my perverted godfather… World history… Chakra control exercises… How to be a healthy and fit shinobi… The history of team seven since Jiji’s genin team led by the Nidaime... Medical Ninjutsu and anatomy… Chakra theory and physics… Cool! I have information on everything I need to know to be the best ninja ever born!”

\---

Two years later, Naruto had all but given up on the academy.

He was in the third month of his third year of the academy, but he was barely doing enough to pass the classes, making himself look like the idiot everyone started to call him.

He noticed early in his education that none of the academy teachers cared if he did good or bad and that some even tried to hinder him. So he gave up in trying to show he was good and started to show only what people wanted to see the happy-go-lucky troublemaker, the idiot, the dead last.

Since the first two years were the basics of what it is being a shinobi and they learned that type of things at home, the clan’s kids only entered the academy for the third and fourth years. That meant that anyone who could be smart enough to figure him out in the beginning, namely Nara Shikamaru, wasn’t there so no one noticed that he was hiding his abilities.

He was able to use one of his Kage Bunshin combined with the Henge to sleep in his old and stinky apartment as well as hide his figure while living and training at his parents’ house. Since he looked too much like his father for his safety, he took to hide it with a light Henge. However, he decided not to hide his height, making Naruto the tallest kid in his class. He was actually the smallest when he was eight, but after he found his parents house he started a proper diet, using the Henge to look like a common old villager to buy his food for the normal prices, and with all the training he was doing, he grew faster than his peers.

At some point, he started to wear an obnoxious orange jumpsuit that not only helped him training his stealth but also helped to hide his muscles and to keep his image as an idiot.

When he first started his third year and met one of the new teachers, he felt a little guilty for not showing what he could do and also for acting like an obnoxious little brat. He could see that Umino Iruka didn’t like him very much yet the man tried to treat him like he would everyone else but Naruto didn’t make it easy for the scarred teacher. However, the blond knew that there would come a time that it would be helpful to be considered an idiot by everyone.

A week later, he felt guilty again but because of a different person. Uchiha Sasuke had lost all of his family, everyone in his clan murdered by his own brother, Itachi. Naruto knew he could help the dark-haired boy avoid the path of vengeance if he showed his true self, but he also knew that he couldn’t drop the mask, not at that point in time.

He thought of Sasuke every day and how he could help the other boy when he was able to finally drop his mask. It was that day’s musings that led to a startling revelation.

 _‘Wait...’_ He thought, all thoughts of Sasuke’s obsession with power and revenge gone, replaced with new ones. _‘Sasuke is the last loyal Uchiha. So, that means that Kashi will probably be his jounin sensei or at least appear occasionally to give him advice on how to use his Sharingan when he unlocks it. Since I’m the dead last and Sasuke is on his way to be the Rookie Of The Year, we will probably end up in the same team and I will finally reunite with Kashi then!’_

He couldn’t stop his excitement at that line of thought and it helped him steeling himself to keep up the appearances. Naruto really couldn’t wait to meet his brother again.

\---

Now, Naruto just finished his last day in the academy before the graduation exams. If he had to evaluate his own abilities, he would say that he had near-perfect chakra control as well as Kage level reserves, was at low jounin level in both ninjutsu, taijutsu and kenjutsu, was a fuinjutsu master and one of the best at that, his level at genjutsu was complicated to define and was elite jounin level in speed. Overall, he could say that he was at low jounin level but this was only theoretical as it was without taking into account actual experience in the field which he had zero.

Of course, this was a level that he was only able to reach because of his training with massive amounts of Kage Bunshin.

Lucky for him, he also had a secret weapon. He was able to reach an understanding with the Kyuubi.

_Start of flashback_

One day, Naruto sat in his bed after dinner meditating when an idea passed through his head and he entered his mindscape.

“Hey!” He softly greeted the Bijuu and then continued without waiting for an answer. “I just remembered something… What is your name? Surely your name isn’t Kyuubi, is it? That sounds more like a title.”

The demon fox stared at the 11 years old boy stupefied, no other human had ever thought of asking that.

 **“Kurama.”** He finally informed, deciding that the blond little boy deserved to know after having the forethought to ask. **“My name is Kurama.”**

“Kurama?” Naruto asked, testing the name and then smiled softly. “It fits you.”

 **“Thanks, Kit.”** The Bijuu answered softly, finally dropping any pretenses that he didn’t like or at least respected the blond boy after over three years of occasional civilized conversations.

“Listen Kurama, the other day I was studying the seal that my dad used to seal you inside me.” The blond informed, treading carefully hoping not to upset. “I was trying to find a way to release you, but unfortunately every single one of them would result in my death.”

The demon couldn’t believe the weird conversation that his jailer started and to add more weirdness to the situation, he actually found that he didn’t want his freedom back if it meant that the boy had to die. However, before he could say anything, Naruto continued.

“A few years back, I would probably be able to do it.” He admitted, shocking Kurama even more. “I would find a place recluse from civilization and give you back your freedom. However, now I can’t do it. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that to Kashi. I fear that it would kill him to find out I died and I just can’t hurt the only family I have left. I’m so sorry Kurama!”

And with that affirmation, the blond boy started to sob uncontrollably.

 **“Kit you have to calm down!”** Kurama said softly but with urgency. **“You’re going to make yourself sick.”**

He had somehow become attached to the boy over the years without realizing and somehow it hurt him seeing Naruto in such pain and sorrow.

 **“Let’s make a deal, Kit.”** He continued. **“When you find who has the key for the seal, you open it so you can use my chakra freely and I won’t try to escape. The only condition I have is that you make sure you someday find the guy who made me attack Konoha and let me help you kill him.”**

Naruto stared at him, calm again, and saw that he was sincere. The blond boy just knew that the demon wasn’t going to try to escape when the seal was broken.

“But why would you do that for me?” Naruto had to ask, his eyes still red from all the crying.

It was then that Kyuubi told him how he and his brothers and sisters were created and their creator’s last words to them.

 **“And I believe you are the person Jiji was talking about.”** Kurama concluded. **“If I’m right, I’m more than honored that I have you as my jailer.”**

“I’m not your jailer anymore and you’re not my prisoner.” The blond remarked. “From this day on, we are partners and you are Kurama, not the demon fox but the other half of the best Konoha’s tag team.”

Instead of answering, his new partner offered him a fist bump which was quickly accepted by a grinning Naruto.

_End of flashback_

Now the blond boy knew that he still had a lot to learn, but he also knew that was more than ready for his graduation.


	3. Graduation and Hatake Kakashi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke are in for a big surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> I'm sorry it took me so much time to post this chapter, but I have been having some problems with my computer...  
> Anyway, I have the next chapter written so I will update as soon as I have it proofread by new beta for this story since I'm already starting to write chapter 5...  
> I hope you guys like this chapter :D  
> Until next time!

Today was the day of his graduation. Naruto was prepared for anything that could be thrown at him and more to come. The only thing he was dreading was that he had to hide his abilities and let Sasuke be the Rookie of the Year which would make the raven boy’s ego even bigger than it already was.

As he woke up in his bed in the master bedroom, he couldn’t help but smile since he was one step closer to reuniting with his older brother.

He ended up choosing to stay in the master bedroom since the ones that were closer to the living room, the kitchen and the library were already set for someone… There was one for Kakashi, one for Jiraiya and one for Tsunade. There was also one made for him, but since he wasn’t a baby anymore, he couldn’t use the crib and he didn’t want to change the room his parents prepared for him so he was saving it for when he had children of his own.

He got up, got dressed and left the house right after eating his breakfast as he would always do. Halfway towards the academy, he met with his clone, who was faking living in his messy old apartment and ordered him to dispel himself. Somehow, Naruto was able to hide from everyone, even the Hokage, the fact that he was not living in the apartment since he found the Namikaze state approximately four years back.

Reaching the academy in record time, he quietly slipped into a seat in the back row and opened one of his fuinjutsu scrolls, preparing himself to wait for his peers. He knew that anyone, besides Iruka and Shikamaru, who was able to peek at the scroll would disregard it as strange drawings resulted from the delusions of the class idiot. If it wasn’t so advanced, Touji Mizuki, Hyuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino might also be able to pick up on it; as it was, it was somewhat safe for him to work on it in the classroom.

As the classroom began to fill, he was able to stay unnoticed by everyone just by being quiet and continuously scribing in his scroll. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Shikamaru entered the classroom so he had to quickly put away his things and fake being asleep. Therefore, when Iruka and Mizuki entered the room and the former yelled for the blond to wake up, no one found it strange that they didn’t notice he was there because he was supposedly sleeping the whole time.

The exams were a breeze for Naruto. If he didn’t know about the second test, he would be really worried about the level of the ninjas from Konoha since he couldn’t believe how easy it all was. Somehow, he was able to restrict himself to do the minimum and pass as the dead last, earning a death glare from Mizuki and a slightly relieved smile from Iruka.

The blond didn’t care much for Iruka but that was not to say that he disliked him. After a little incident in which Naruto let the kind sensei think he saved him, the scarred chunin started to try harder to be there for the blond and even bought him ramen from time to time, probably because he felt guilty over almost letting one of his students get hurt on his watch. Iruka seemed to like his happy-go-lucky persona well enough after that, but the chunin didn’t know anything about the real Naruto, so the blond always put walls around his heart when he was with the brown-haired young man.

Sasuke was, of course, the Rookie Of The Year and Haruno Sakura the Best Kunoichi and therefore Naruto knew he would be on the same team as those two.

He liked Sasuke once, but the dark-haired boy became an arrogant, power-seeking jerk, yet the blond still hoped that he could save the Uchiha from himself.

Sakura, on the other hand, was a different story! He had a crush on her since the first time he saw her, he found her very pretty, shy and intelligent. However, when she started to hang out with Yamanaka Ino, as well as idolizing Sasuke, he gave up on the girl who seemed to lack common sense. He knew she was going to be a nuisance on the team unless he was able to bring back the girl he once liked so he would at least try to get along with her and restore her to who she used to be.

Somehow, he was happy that Sakura was the one that would end up on his team and not Hinata or Ino. Ino would be more annoying and much more difficult to break from her fangirlism; Hinata had a major crush on the blond and would probably become a liability on a mission if or when she passed out because he talked to her.

With the exams over with, Naruto quickly escaped the academy after seeing the dark and mischievous gleam on Mizuki’s eyes and the hopeful one on Iruka’s. He wasn’t in the mood to his academy’s senseis, he just wanted to quietly celebrate that he was finally done with the academy and closer to reuniting with his brother.

\---

Two weeks later, he made his way towards the academy again for the team placements and finally started his career as a shinobi. He dressed as he usually did, but he decided that he would let his naturally quiet persona show.

When the room was filled and Iruka entered the room, he wasn’t surprised to see him alone since he had heard that Mizuki tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll from the Hokage’s office merely to be caught by the old man before he could leave and was sent to prison, the fool!

After a long and tedious speech, the chunin started to present the team placements, until it came to team 7.

“Team 7 is Uzumaki Naruto…” Iruka started to say, gracing the blond with a curious and slightly worried stare. Naruto almost laughed out loud, he couldn’t believe the irony! Well, he should have known... It’s in his blood, after all! Nonetheless, he was on team 7 like his godfather, his father, and his brother before him.

“...Haruno Sakura…” The chunin continued, making the pink-haired girl groan and Naruto sigh softly in resignation. “...and Uchiha Sasuke.”

The last name led to a torrent of screams and shrieks from all the fangirls and groans from the male population because of all the noise. When everyone calmed down, Iruka quickly announced the last two teams which were team 8 with Shino, Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba and team 10 with Ino, Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji.

After a quick lunch break, the possible future jounin sensei started to enter the room and take their possible future teams with them, leaving behind team 7 with Iruka. The only sounds in the room were those of their breathing, Iruka’s pen writing something on a scroll and Sakura’s failed tentatives of engaging Sasuke in a conversation.

Two hours later, the scarred chunin was long gone and team 7 was still waiting in the classroom. At some point in time, Sakura and Sasuke started to wonder what happened to their blond classmate since he hadn’t uttered a word all day and just looked bored out of his mind. They even started to throw him slightly worried looks, but the blond didn’t seem to pay them any mind.

As it was, the two young genin-hopefuls almost jumped out of their skin when they saw Naruto’s head audibly snap up and in the direction of the door, his eyes wide with surprise. They didn’t know about Naruto’s improved senses, so they didn’t have a way to know that Naruto just recognized the scent and the sound of soft footsteps of a certain silver-haired jounin. As the man in question entered through the door, Naruto couldn’t believe his luck as he got the confirmation that he would actually have his brother as his jounin sensei if he passed the test.

“Hatake… Kakashi…” Naruto spoke softly before he could stop himself, never taking his wide shining eyes away from his brother’s suddenly wide one.

Kakashi could only stare at his possible new student with a mix of awe, joy, and confusion at being recognized, the little theatricals that he had prepared for that day completely forgotten.

The other two occupants of the room were thoroughly confused. The Naruto they were seeing today, was one they had never met. He was quiet, patient and seemed to know the person who probably was their jounin sensei.

“Do you know him Naruto?” Sakura asked, being her normal insensitive self while Sasuke tried to look nonchalant when he was so obviously interested in the answer too. The two genins were surprised by their teammate’s soft voice and that he finally spoke.

“Every good ninja, not only in this village but also in the whole world, knows him Sakura. Your point?” Naruto retorted calmly and sarcastically without taking his gaze away from his brother, effectively insulting and angering his two teammates and making Kakashi want to laugh.

Before it could escalate in a discussion, the silver-haired jounin quickly interrupted Sakura and Sasuke who had their mouths wide open, ready to tear on their teammate.

“Anyway, meet me on the roof in 10 minutes.” Kakashi said before quickly shunshining to the roof and Naruto quickly followed leaving two dumbstruck rookie genins behind.

As the blond arrived at the roof about 5 seconds after the silver-haired man, Kakashi turned to Naruto startled for a few seconds before relaxing a bit and putting the young boy under his scrutinizing gaze.

“How do you know who I am?” Kakashi finally asked, after not coming to any conclusion by himself. “It’s true that ninjas around the world know me, but they have access to a bingo book, which you don’t. There would be no way for you to know who I am.”

“What kind of person would I be if I didn’t know who was my own brother?” Naruto questioned with a serious and somewhat hurt expression, making the other stare, surprised before looking a little hopeful. “Do you think I am someone who would forget the people who took care of me, Inu-nii-san?”

At this, Kakashi’s single visible eye widened and he looked ready to cry under the blond’s piercing gaze.

“No, Naru-chan.” The silver-haired male answered softly, instinctively reverting to shorting the blond’s name like he did when he was in Anbu, a soft look on his visible eye. “I just didn’t think you would recognize me without the Anbu mask.”

Naruto could see that the other was telling the truth and his eyes softened as he smiled softly to the older man. That simple action seemed to break the dam for Kakashi because the next thing he knew, the blond was being hugged tightly.

“I thought I had lost you forever.” Kakashi whispered as he pulled the younger boy tighter against his chest, his voice breaking as the blond felt his golden hair getting a bit damp, making him realize that his brother was silently crying. “I never dreamed that you would recognize me. I thought you would never know, that you would never treat me the same way you did when I was in Anbu and that I had lost my chance to be your older brother.”

“That could never happen Kashi-nii.” Naruto stated calmly, hugging his brother back for dear life. “I would have recognized your scent anywhere.”

After a couple of minutes, Naruto carefully disentangled himself from the older boy, took his dad’s letter out of his pouch and gave it to Kakashi for him to read. When the silver-haired jounin finished reading, his eye was wide again as he looked into his little brother’s eyes and he had a few tears still streaming down the visible part of his face towards the mask which was getting damp.

“Where I found that letter, I also found his journal. He wrote about you and your team as well as various other things, like your code-name in the Anbu.” The blond informed in his naturally soft voice. “That was how I knew your name, but I would know you were Inu anyway because of your scent.”

“I see…” Kakashi mumbled after a few more moments of silence, finally composing himself and erasing the evidence of having been crying while giving Minato’s letter back to the blond.

Naruto pocketed the letter and hugged his brother tightly, savoring Kakashi’s warm presence until he caught Sakura and Sasuke’s scents and chakras getting closer.

“Sakura and Sasuke are almost here.” He commented as he regretfully stepped away from the hug. “Promise me that we will talk after this, today!”

“I promise! However, it will be better if we don’t get out of here together so neither of your teammates can scream favoritism, ok?” Whispered Kakashi, touched by the almost desperation in his little brother’s voice. “Meet me at the memorial stone after this. Do you know how to find it Naru?”

“Yes Kashi-nii, I know where it is. I’ll shunshin there as soon as you dismiss us here.” Naruto grinned.

The silver-haired young man didn’t even bother asking how the blond knew the shunshin, but he couldn’t help himself and smiled at the younger boy while ruffling his hair, before Sakura and Sasuke could make it into the roof. It was his first real smile since he had to leave the Anbu and consequently his brother behind; it wasn’t anything like his fake one, where he closed his visible eye, it was one that could only be seen by the soft look, the emphasize of the laughter lines on the corner of his visible eye and the slight shift in his mask.

“Here they come! The duck butt and his loyal follower...” Naruto snorted just a few seconds short of Sakura and Sasuke’s appearance, his resigned and slightly impatient expression making Kakashi laugh, a deep contagious laugh that left the blond laughing with him.

That was the scene when the two missing genins found when they made it to the roof. As they draw closer to the two, their previous anger and annoyance evaporated as they saw something that they had never seen before: Naruto’s eyes were lit up, sparkling even while he laughed. His laughter wasn’t the usually obnoxious one but a clear and soft one that made Sakura blush at the sight and Sasuke’s gaze softened, a tiny smile on his lips.

Considering what they were seeing, the genins could only assume that this was the first time that they were seeing their blond teammate truly laughing since they met him and that all the other times he was laughing were fake. It was at that moment they were starting to wonder if they really knew Naruto.

“Why were you laughing?” Sakura inquired looking between the two after they stopped laughing.

“I don’t really know, ask him.” Naruto shrugged, inclining his head towards his brother. “He started laughing and somehow it made me laugh too.”

That caught the young Uchiha’s attention and made him look incredulous at the blond who had turned his gaze towards the sky.

 _‘Were we that bad?’_ The dark-haired boy asked himself. _‘Were we so bad that someone can make Naruto laugh so freely after less than ten minutes of them being together, while we had at least, two years and never saw it before?’_

He was suddenly struck by the realization that yes, they were that bad. They all were! At that moment it became obvious for Sasuke that the blond showed his obnoxious persona to everyone because that was what everyone expected to see. He always wondered why the Hokage seemed to be so close to his teammate when the blond was so obnoxious. That was the moment that the answer was finally crystal clear for him: the Hokage had the desire to get to know the real Naruto so the blond showed it to him but since no one in their class was really interested in the boy, no one saw his real self!

Sakura hung her head in shame as she also reached the same conclusions about the blond as her dark-haired teammate. Now that she had finally seen the real Naruto, she didn’t want him to revert to what he was before that day.

Meanwhile, as the blond was distracted watching the clouds, Kakashi was observing his other two cute genin’s reaction to the sight of his little brother laughing. Since he heard the Hokage saying that Naruto was a loud happy-go-lucky kid and Iruka describing him as slightly obnoxious, the jounin knew that either they weren’t talking about the same person or his little brother was using that attitude to hide his real self. Seeing the Uchiha and Haruno’s reactions, he knew that it was the latter.

“Well, introduce yourselves so we can get to know each other better.” Kakashi encouraged, eye-smiling.

Sasuke was indifferent to it while Sakura and Naruto had completely opposite reactions. While the girl seemed happy that the jounin smiled at them, the blond almost cringed at the fake smile as it seemed to make him feel slightly uneasy.

“How about we start with you, Naruto?” The silver-haired young man suggested after seeing that no one was taking the initiative.

“I’m Naruto.” The blond began, seeing no way out. “And I’m twelve years old.”

He was ready to end it there, but seeing his brother’s interested expression, he didn’t have the heart to cut his introduction short.

“If I told you everything I like, we would be here the whole day.” He continued with a bored expression. “I dislike arrogant people, fangirls and the ones that can’t tell the difference between a kunai and its container. Lastly, my dream is to be Hokage one day and make my family proud.”

As the jounin looked into that shiny blue eyes, he knew that the blond wasn’t only talking about Minato and Kushina but also Kakashi himself. It was a bit overwhelming for the silver-haired man to see such admiration and care directed to himself; this boy he always considered his precious little brother, although they weren’t blood-related, was the only one who ever looked like that to him since Minato and Kushina died. It took him a bit to understand that it was unconditional love that he was seeing in Naruto’s eyes: the type of love that you normally only see in your family. Kakashi couldn’t help himself and had to smile at his brother.

Sasuke felt uncomfortable after hearing his teammate’s introduction. It didn’t escape him that both himself and Sakura were in the blond’s list of things he disliked and, for some reason he couldn’t explain, it irked him. However, that wasn’t the only thing that upset him. Naruto was looking at their sensei like Sasuke himself used to look at his brother Itachi, but he knew they weren’t brothers since they were nothing alike. Yet inexplicably, he wanted to be closer with this new version of his blond teammate and he wanted that look directed to himself…

Sakura was oblivious to her sensei and her teammate’s musings, she was too occupied watching Naruto. She could now remember another quiet and younger version of her blond teammate, from before the clans' kids joined the academy; she could now remember, that he only started to turn himself into a loud and obnoxious idiot after being thoroughly ignored and even put down by everyone for months. She finally realized that Naruto was wearing a mask to protect himself and her part in it. She also noticed how handsome her teammate really was. 

_‘His blond hair has a golden shine to it and his shiny blue eyes are striking. He is almost as handsome as Sasuke-kun!’_ She thought, feeling herself blushing. _‘Why didn’t I ever notice all this before? I was there when he created that stupid mask and I saw him grow! I should have questioned the sudden change and I should have tried to be his friend. Instead, I’m probably near the top of the list of people he doesn’t like…’_

Naruto, who had started to watch the clouds again, looked at the others after no one talked for a while and saw the three lost in thought.

“Shouldn’t we get this done? I have somewhere to be after this, you know?” He hinted, interrupting their thoughts and looking at his brother who smiled at him.

“Yes, of course!” Kakashi chuckled. “You’re next Sasuke.”

“My name is Sasuke. There are very few things I like and a lot that I dislike. My dream is more of an ambition: I want to kill a certain man.” The Uchiha said with contempt.

“What he means is that he likes tomatoes and training, dislikes fangirls and everyone else that breathes too close to him and wants to kill Itachi to avenge his clan.” Naruto pointed out with a bored tone.

 _‘So Naru knows about Itachi.’_ Kakashi concluded. _‘I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, he was always more observant than anyone gave him credit.’_

As he exchanged a look with his brother, he knew they were thinking along the same lines. _‘If we don’t do something about this revenge crap and fast, it will come back to bite us in the ass.’_

The raven looked at the blond startled, he never knew that Naruto knew him so well. It made him feel even guiltier for not noticing his teammate’s true self before.

Sakura just looked between his teammates and sensei in obvious confusion.

“Sakura?” Kakashi simply asked.

“I’m Sakura and I’m also twelve years old.” She stopped, biting his lip before continuing, a little uncertain. “I like reading and dislike being wrong about something or someone. My dream… Being a good kunoichi, I guess.”

All three males looked at Sakura in slight disbelief.

 _‘Wow! She didn't talk about Sasuke even once.’_ Naruto thought, confused.

 _‘Wasn't she a fangirl?’_ Kakashi mused as confused as his little brother.

 _‘Hn! Is she finally taking this serious?’_ The raven asked himself, feeling slightly hopeful.

As Sakura was starting to wonder why they were all looking at her with odd looks, Kakashi shook his head and got out of his funk.

“Well, with the introductions done…” He started just to be interrupted by a certain blond.

“You didn't introduce yourself Kakashi.” Naruto deadpanned.

“Oh! Right! Sorry…” The silver-haired man smiled apologetically under his mask. “As you already heard, I’m Kakashi. I’m 26 years old and while I don’t want to be Hokage, my dream, likes, and dislikes are the same as Naruto’s.”

 _‘I can’t believe I actually forgot that I didn’t introduce myself!’_ He raved to himself, embarrassed at his distraction. _‘That’s what I get for only paying attention to Naru-chan and the amusing reactions that he can get out of his teammates. I should be more attentive. I'm a jounin, for god’s sake! I guess I missed him even more than I thought...’_

 _‘The same as me?’_ Naruto looked at his brother in mixed curiosity and disbelief. _‘What are you trying to accomplish with that introduction, Kashi-nii?’_

Sasuke frowned at the man he was starting to dislike more than he dislikes every normal non-fangirl person. _‘Hn. Why is he rubbing it on our faces that he is close with Naruto and we're not? And why does Naruto like him so much? What does he have that we don't?’_

 _‘Wow! He and Naruto seem close.’_ Sakura thought, finally noticing her sensei's relationship with her blond teammate. _‘Do they know each other from before today? But they both seemed surprised when they met. Arg! Those two don't make any sense!’_

“Now that it’s done...” Kakashi started with an amused expression, already imagining his genins hopeful's reactions. “You need to know you're not genins yet.”

“WHAT?” Sakura and, strangely enough, Sasuke yelled as Naruto winced at their loud voices and stared at his brother with a calculating and slightly amused look.

“Well… You see, the academy’s exam is only to herd out the hopeless ones.” The jounin explains. “The real exam is given to you by your possible future jounin sensei. This exam generally has a 66% failure rate, so out of the 27 of your graduating class probably only 9 will make the cut.”

Seeing the incredulous yet determined expressions on two of his cute little student-hopefuls, Kakashi couldn’t contain his amusement and giggled softly. However, as he turned his attention to his brother he still saw a calculating look, it felt like the blond was trying to catch some hidden message in his words and while he knew he wasn’t being nearly as intimidating as he intended to be at first, it pleased him to see that one of the genin-hopefuls was already trying to see underneath the underneath.

“What will this exam consist of?” Sakura asked slowly as if afraid of the answer, making the older male look at her in guarded approval which went unnoticed by the girl.

“I'll tell you the details tomorrow morning." The jounin answered calmly. "Just be at the training ground three with all your ninja tools at 6 AM. And well, don't eat breakfast."

Seeing that even his brother looked bewildered now, he couldn't help but chuckle before delivering the killing blow and shunshining out of there. "If you eat, you'll puke… See you!"

After a few moments of staring at the place the jounin had just vacated, the three genin-hopefuls exchanged bewildered looks before Naruto stood up without a word and started to walk calmly towards the edge of the roof, seemingly ready to jump to the ground. Alarmed, Sakura and Sasuke quickly caught up to him and caught one arm each.

"What are you doing?" The duo almost screamed, surprising the blond with the concern that he heard in their voices.

"I'm going home?" Naruto informed them, but he was so confused that it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"By jumping out of the roof?" The girl of the group demanded, her expression etched in pure disbelief gaining incredulous looks from both of her teammates.

"Don't be stupid, Sakura. We are ninjas, we are supposed to jump out of roofs and from rooftop to rooftop." Sasuke stated to the pink-haired girl who had the decency to blush in embarrassment, before turning to his blond teammate. "You're not going anywhere unless you answer some of my questions."

“I’m sorry Sasuke.” Naruto said after prying himself off his teammates’ hold. “But I’ll have to answer your questions some other time, I have a place I need to be. See you!”

Before his two teammates could react to his words or his display of flexibility to escape their hold on him, he had already shunshined away to the memorial stone to meet with his brother.

“What just happened?” Sakura asked no one in particular, feeling slightly dazed and her only answer was a “Hn” from an equally dazed Sasuke.

After a few moments of quiet contemplation, Sakura decided that she needed a bit of her normalcy back and let herself fall back in her usual fangirl tendencies, effectively making Sasuke flee to his home to get away from her.

Having been left alone, the pink-haired girl headed home and locked herself in her room to think about everything that happened in peace.

 _‘Am I really one of the people Naruto doesn’t like?’_ She mused, feeling depressed. _‘And why am I worrying about what he thinks of me? He is an idiot, THE CLASS CLOWN!’_

 **“You know that’s not true... You’re lying to yourself!”** Her inner-self accused, frustrated. **“You found out today that he was using a mask almost all the time you were in the academy, you got to that conclusion by yourself. You don’t know what was fake and what wasn’t... I am willing to bet that he is actually quite intelligent and that that awful jumpsuit is part of the mask of an idiot that he created to protect himself!”**

Sakura knew that her inner-self was right, but it didn’t make it easier for her to accept that she had misjudged one of her classmates so badly that she made herself a disliked person to him. However, no matter how many times she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why the mere thought that she lost the opportunity of being his friend and that he disliked her made her so upset that she wanted to cry her eyes out.

With her world turned upside down, Sakura decided to rely on what normalcy that she still had and focused on her crush on her dark-haired teammate for the time being.

Meanwhile, Naruto appeared at the memorial stone, not acknowledging his brother immediately as he focused on his parents' names carved on the stone. Finally turning to Kakashi after a few minutes of silence, the blond looked at the silver-haired man adoringly for a moment before taking his hand.

“Let’s take this to a more private place, alright?” Naruto asked, barely waiting for the other’s nod to disappear in a swirl of leaves.


	4. Unexpected happenings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So many unexpected conversations...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Here's chapter 4, like I promised. However, I haven't wrote chapter 5 yet so I can't say how long will it take to update 😅  
> Take note that some people will be older or younger than in the canon to fit my story...  
> I'm very happy with this chapter so I hope you like it as much as I do 😊  
> Happy Easter and until next time! 😘

As he and Naruto appeared in the Namikaze state, Kakashi couldn't help but gape at the sight of the house. The blond wasn’t surprised by his reaction as he knew that his brother wasn’t aware of the existence of that house. His parents had wanted to surprise the, at the time, teen with it as well as their intention to adopt him if he was willing.

“Welcome to the Namikaze state!” Naruto exclaims. “My parents had this house built after they found out that mom was pregnant. Don’t be so upset! They wanted to surprise you with it after I was born and they were hoping that you would come live with us… However, they wanted you to be officially part of the family first.”

Kakashi, who had ducked his head in sadness that his sensei hadn’t told him that he was moving, lifted his single visible eye to his brother’s blue ones in confusion with what he meant with being officially part of the family. But, before he could ask, the blond was already halfway through the front door forcing the jounin to follow him in and he was just in time to see Naruto disappearing from the leaving room to another part of the house.

He pulled his mask down seeing that they were the only people in the house and decided to wait for his little brother to come back as he pondered the blond’s explanation for him not being informed of this house, his last words hanging in the air: _they wanted you to be officially part of the family first_. He had no idea what that meant, but he repeated it in his head over and over until Naruto came back into the room with a different outfit and some papers in his hands.

As he was going to question his brother, the blond suddenly dropped the henge that he had on his face and hair, distracting the silver-haired man as he observed the few changes in the teen’s physical appearance. Naruto’s face while not as angular as his father’s, was much less round now, a perfect balance between Kushina and Minato’s; his hair although still golden and slightly spiked at tips, was straighter, a few shades lighter, longer with the tips touching his biceps about 5 to 7 centimeters below the shoulders as he moved around and while it was left untied, his forehead protector kept his spiky fringe away from his eyes as his hair flowed freely in his back. The blond’s outfit also made him look different since the horrid orange jumpsuit that hid his nicely developed muscles, was gone, replaced by black anbu pants and a tight dark grey mesh under-armor, both similar to the one his father wore when he was a Genin, but with a thin faded dark green hoodie tied at his hips instead of wearing a white tracksuit, whilst the cloth of his forehead protector and his ninja sandals were now dark grey, opposite to the blue ones that he was wearing before. In all, the boy looked even more like his father but his similarities with his mother were also still quite noticeable. If he still had any doubts that the blue-eyed genin was wearing a mask, they would have been completely erased at this point.

“Come on, you should sit here and read this.” Naruto said, taking advantage of his brother’s few moments of shock at his changing in appearance to lead him to sit in one of the sofas before giving him the papers he had gotten earlier and sat down beside him.

 _‘Wow! I actually get to see his face!’_ He thought as he had noticed that the jounin had his mask down, opting for not making a fuss about it out loud. _‘Even mom and dad didn’t see his face until after they knew him for a long time and, even then, he would only show it on rare occasions.’_

“They wanted to adopt me?” Kakashi asked in disbelief, locking eyes with his brother who nodded. “Me? This can’t be right... I don’t think Kushina-san liked me that much, especially after Obito and Rin’s deaths. I can’t blame her for that, after all, it was my fault that they died.”

For a minute, Naruto could only stare at his brother’s dejected form in shock. He already knew that the silver-haired man blamed himself for his teammates’ deaths, but for the jounin to think that the woman who loved him like he was her own son didn’t like him and blamed him for Obito and Rin’s deaths was unacceptable.

“Listen to me Kashi-nii and listen well! I don’t want to have to repeat myself.” Naruto lectures after lifting the man’s head to look into his eye, his expression soft but almost desperate. “Mom loved you! She loved you so much that it was driving her crazy seeing you wallowing in your self-appointed guilt.”

Kakashi looked so stunned that Naruto couldn’t help but sigh in slight exasperation, the look of wonder and awe in the man’s face tugged at his heartstrings and left him in tears. _‘Why didn’t anyone actually try to help him? Why didn’t mom and dad tell him how they felt about him?’_

“It’s true that she didn’t know what to think of you in the beginning. On one hand, she understood that you had no family and that it hurt you but, on the other hand, she thought that you were hurting dad by not accepting his help and not opening up to him. I won’t lie to you nii-san... She even preferred Obito over you and Rin because she identified herself with him. However, that was already starting to change a little before their deaths. Then, she admired your strength to wake up every morning, alone in your house but always ready to fight for the village.” After pausing to make sure Kakashi was listening, he continued but not before taking notice of the tears streaming down his brother’s beautiful face, the single visible eye staring at his own tear strained ones. “After they died, mom and dad started to feel even more protective of you than ever before. They talked about it countless times: how they could help you, how they loved you so much and how they wanted you safe with them. It wasn’t long after they found out that mom was pregnant that they finally reached the only conclusion that they could come up with and they decided to prepare everything to adopt you on the day I was born if you agreed with it. Mom came to love you more than anyone besides dad and I, she would be devastated if she knew that you thought that she blamed you for Obito and Rin’s deaths.”

As Naruto finished his ranting with his voice thick almost choking, Kakashi started sobbing like the broken man he was while clinging desperately to the younger male. It had hurt him knowing that he had hurt Minato and Kushina badly with his grief and that they didn’t get the chance to become the family they were supposed to.

“How do you know all of this?” He asked after calming down. He had seen the blond’s face so he knew the boy wasn’t lying. “Did Minato-sensei wrote about it in his journal?”

“Yes, and mom too.” Naruto answered smiling tenderly. “I found this house when I was 8 years old after I entered the academy. There were two letters with my name on it, one from dad and one from mom. Mom is explaining what happened that night and how I could find everything I would like to know about their lives and you already read dad’s letter. I’m blessed that while I never met them, I know a lot of things about them and you from their journals.”

Kakashi could only smile back, happy that his little brother didn’t grow up not knowing anything about his family and touched that the blond considered him part of it.

“But we can talk about that later.” Naruto speaks again, snapping the jounin out of his thoughts. “I would like you to sign the adoption papers.”

“WHAT!?” The silver-haired man yelled, startled but calming down instantly after seeing the blond wince and spoke softly. “Naru-chan, they’re dead… The papers won’t be valid.”

“If they could be valid, would you sign it Kashi-nii?” Naruto insisted. He had spent all those years that he had known about the papers devising a way to make it official and he didn’t want it to go down the drain. “I don’t care if you keep the Hatake name or if you decide to take the Namikaze one, I just would like to make it official so no one can take me away from you if I fail your test, even if it’s unlikely that I’ll fail. You are my brother, papers or no papers but I would like to reduce the risk of being separated from you again.”

“I would sign these papers in a heartbeat if they were valid Naru.” Kakashi said forcefully. “I love you and your parents so much that nothing would have made me happier than being their son and your brother legally. Never doubt that!”

“Then, go fetch me Nara Shikaku, please.” Naruto asked him with a soft smile and a glint in his eyes. “I think I have a way but we will need his help.”

“Now?” The jounin questioned with doubt in his visible eye just to have the blond nod at him.

While he still had some doubts that they could pull it off, he obliged and twenty minutes later he was back at the house with the older jounin in tow.

Shikaku couldn’t help but marvel at the house he was seeing, a house that he never knew that existed in Konoha. He was confused about why Kakashi would want to talk to him in private but after hearing the grave and urgent tone on the younger man’s voice, he couldn’t deny him since it was the first time in years that Kakashi came to him for anything. However, he wasn’t expecting that they would go to a house that he had never seen.

As they entered and he looked around in the living room, he saw pictures of his late friends and couldn’t help but gulp until his eyes landed on the person sitting on one of the sofas.

“M-M-Min… Minato!” He stuttered in shock, his body frozen in place.

“Almost Nara-sama.” The blond laughed softly, his eyes dancing with amusement. “I’m Namikaze Naruto, his son. I’m sorry for calling you here with such short notice but I’m afraid I will need your help.”

Shikaku tried to wrap his mind around the boy’s changes and that he was always correct in his suspicions that the boy was his best friend’s son. Guilt churned in his gut, especially when he watched the silver-haired jounin gracefully sit beside the genin seeming to cling to the younger boy for comfort and lost himself in one particular thought. _‘I can’t believe I let these boys suffer alone all those years. Minato, you would have been so disappointed in me... I let you and Kushina down by not taking care of your two sons properly.’_

“I have been using a henge on my face and hair.” Naruto informed the older man, snapping Shikaku out of his thoughts and deciding to ignore the pain and guilt that he saw on the old Nara’s face, focusing on the confusion instead. “As you can see, I look a bit too much like my father to be safe. I also have been using that horrid orange jumpsuit so it would help the image of the happy-go-lucky idiot as well as hide my musculature so no one would get too suspicious. While I like orange, I don’t like it to the point of wearing so much of it and I definitely prefer a darker shade.”

“It’s ok Nara-sama. We’re not upset with you nor blame you for anything.” Kakashi reassured with a slightly worried expression hidden behind his mask after seeing the older man’s expression as the blond nodded in agreement with his brother. “You didn’t know about Naruto being Minato-sensei’s son and it’s not like I let anyone help me in the past twelve years… Just sit down, please as what we want help with might be impossible to make it work.”

“Whatever it is, I’ll make it work!” Shikaku exclaimed after sitting on the sofa, opposite to them. “For you two, I’ll do anything! What do you need me to do?”

Shikaku could see that Kakashi seemed to be as expectant as he was and deduced that whatever it was, was the blond’s idea.

“How comfortable are you with lying to the Hokage?” Naruto asked, shocking the two males into absolute silence for a few seconds.

“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Both jounins answered in unison.

Seeing their nonchalance, Naruto explained his plan to the older males gaining looks of utter awe.

“Let me see if I got this straight!” Shikaku voiced in disbelief and wonder. “You want me to attest to the Hokage that both myself and Kakashi signed the adoption papers over 12 years ago and that the only reason we didn’t say anything was that we didn’t have any proof since we thought that the papers had been destroyed with Minato’s apartment in the Kyuubi attack.”

“But one supposed conversion between the two of us led to you saying that there’s one copy in the Hokage’s office that can only be accessed by you because of a blood seal.” Kakashi continues where the older man left off. “And this will work because Minato-sensei left a seal on both copies of the papers that makes sure that what is written on one of them will automatically appear on the other so if we never reveal the existence of this copy, the council will be forced to acknowledge it as valid since not only it has Minato-sensei’s signature but also mine and Nara-sama’s. If Nara-sama confirms that we sign the papers the day before your birthday, they can’t deny it as the only other person alive that was involved in the process wasn’t in the village when this was supposedly signed by us.”

“That’s brilliant Naruto!” Shikaku exclaimed after the blond nodded, making the genin blush a bit and chuckle softly. “No one will suspect anything since you are the only one who could get that documentation and there would be no way for a genin, much less the supposed dead-last, to break in the Hokage’s office and falsify those documents.”

“Yes, and my godfather might be an idiot but he’s not stupid, he will go along with our story for sure.” Naruto said, making the two jounins smile as they signed the papers.

“And when do you think we should talk to the Hokage about this?” Shikaku asked, wanting to see what his friend’s genius son would say.

“Now.” It was Naruto’s answer before he shunshinned away, leaving a smirking Shikaku and an amused Kakashi to follow.

\---

The Hokage and the elders were having a meeting when the office’s door was slammed open startling its occupants. Hiruzen looked up just in time to see Naruto walking in with Kakashi and Shikaku on his heels.

 _‘What an unlikely trio.’_ Was the three elders first thought.

“Jiji! We need to talk in private. Now!” Naruto demanded, his tone slightly more like his real self than normal. The boy was glad he had remembered to use a Henge not only on his face but also on his outfit before going to the Hokage’s office.

“Naruto, can’t you see I’m in a meeting?” Hiruzen chided the boy gently.

“This is important Hokage-sama.” Shikaku interrupts with a serious demeanor. “With all due respect but I’m sure you can meet with the elders some other time.”

Hiruzen, seeing the tension in his two jonins and the boy he considers a grandson, decided to dismiss the elders and even his anbu guards, activating privacy seals while locking the door and dropping the binders on the windows so no one could see anything from outside. When he turned back, Naruto dropped the Henge shocking the old man to the core.

Shikaku smirked to himself as he and his nephews told the Hokage the cover story of Kakashi’s adoption after Naruto told them how he found his parents’ house and a small resume of what happened in the last four years without their knowledge and he could see the old man accepting the story as truthful.

 _‘From now on, I can finally take care of Minato’s boys!’_ The Nara man thought, excited or, at least, as excited as a member of the Nara clan can be. _‘Kakashi won’t shy away from me with Naruto by his side.’_

“I see.” Hiruzen acknowledged. “What do you want me to do about it? I doubt you would have told me any of this without any idea on what to do with this information.”

“We want you to change Kakashi’s registry to show the information about the adoption and mine to show my parentage. We need to have a safeguard if anyone tries to take me away from my brother.” Naruto informed with serious eyes that reminded the other occupants of the room of the boy’s father. “Other than that, don’t tell anyone until I make chunin. At that time, I will stop hiding and I’ll announce that Kakashi is my adoptive brother after I finally take the Namikaze name again.”

“I will take the Namikaze name too when Naruto does.” Kakashi reported, smiling in his brother’s direction. “And we also want you to keep the adoption papers as proof that we are telling the truth.”

When Kakashi finished talking, Naruto went to his father’s picture on the wall and took the adoption papers from the safe hidden behind it to show the Hokage.

“It all seems to be in order. Congratulations, Namikaze Kakashi!” Hiruzen smiled before putting it in his own vault for safekeeping.

Kakashi almost shagged in relief as he could finally legally claim Naruto as his brother and he could finally have a family again. As Naruto looked at him with a victorious smile, the silver-haired man took his brother in his arms, who clung to him as if Kakashi was a lifeline, and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to a slightly teary-eyed but smiling Shikaku before turning his attention back to his emotional little brother.

“Shhh Naru, it’s ok.” Kakashi comforted the little blond, drawing circles on the younger boy’s back and his voice barely above a whisper but audible to all the occupants of the room. “I’m here now. I promise I won’t leave you like four and a half years ago. Never again! We’re not alone anymore... No one can keep us apart this time! Shhh! It’s ok.”

Shikaku and Hiruzen felt their hearts break a little at sight in front of them. The Nara clan-head cursed himself for not having been there for his nephews before and the Hokage was ashamed of his part in keeping two of his favorite boys away from each other.

“Hokage-sama!” Shikaku exclaimed sharply, startling the old man and making the two younger males who were still in each other’s arms look at him. “If you don’t need us anymore, I’m taking my nephews to celebrate.”

“Nephews!?” Hiruzen shrieked, eyes wide as saucers while Kakashi’s eyes widened in surprise and disbelief as he released Naruto who smiled knowingly at his ‘uncle’.

“Yes, Hokage-sama.” Shikaku confirmed with an unreadable glint in his eyes. “At her marriage with Minato, Kushina told me that in no time I would have their kids at my door, wanting to see Uncle Shikaku and Aunt Yoshino. Since Minato agreed with her, that makes Naruto and Kakashi my nephews.”

Hiruzen could only gape at Shikaku’s serious visage, Kakashi perplexed complexion and Naruto’s pleased smile before dismissing them.

“Hokage-sama?” Naruto paused before they were out of the room, his voice sending chills to Hiruzen’s spine. “You should know that I’m not really happy with you right now. While I understand why you couldn’t tell me who my parents were, you could have told me that you couldn’t tell me until I made chunin or turned 16, whichever happened first, instead of lying to me.”

“Naruto, I…” The old man started to say, just to be interrupted by a glare from the blond boy.

“From now on and until I feel that I can trust you again, our relationship is strictly professional.” Naruto informed, his glare turning into a very disappointed look. “Have a good day, Hokage-sama.”

As Naruto and Kakashi proceeded to leave the room after the younger boy replaced his _Henge_ , Shikaku lagged behind to talk to the Hokage for a minute.

“You really screwed up this time, Hokage-sama.” The Nara man breathed. “An apology won’t work… If you want to get Naruto and Kakashi’s trust back, you have to prove with your actions that you’re trustworthy. They will see your words as empty and meaningless if your actions don’t back them up.”

Sarutobi Hiruzen could only watch with a pained expression as the Nara exited his office leaving the old man to wallow in guilt and self-pity.

\---

As Naruto and Kakashi got home, they collapsed together on the sofa after releasing their respective masks. They had separated from Shikaku after agreeing to meet later that day for dinner at the older man’s house giving the brothers time for a proper talk about the years they had been without each other and for the older man to get his son out of the house for the night as well as informing his wife of the basics of the happenings of the day.

The room was silent as none of them wanted to break the silence and lose the peace that had installed itself in them just by being in each other’s company.

“You welcomed me back into your life so easily…” Kakashi finally dared to speak. “Aren’t you disappointed in me? I abandoned you.”

Naruto sighed, frustrated. The blond knew that Kakashi blamed himself for not being there for his little brother for four and a half years but never thought that the jounin would see it as abandonment.

“Kashi-nii, you didn’t abandon me.” Naruto assured. “You cared for me more than anyone I ever met. You were always the only person I felt comfortable enough to be myself without masks or reservations. When you disappeared a few months before my anbu protection ended and then I started the academy where everyone hated me, I confess that I was starting to think that I was wrong about you. I was losing hope but as soon as I found this house and read dad’s journal, I immediately understood what happened. And I was so happy to find out that I was right, that you cared for me and didn’t leave because you wanted to. There is no way I could be disappointed in you after everything you did for me in all the years you were in anbu.”

Kakashi cried silently, his emotions in tumult. In all his 26 years of life, he had never cried so much for someone as he didn’t cry for anything short of the death of his precious people. He didn’t cry for living people, not for his parents, not for his teammates and not for his adoptive parents. Maybe it was because the boy was the only family he had left or maybe because he had already lost too much but Naruto was always different from everyone else… He cried when the little blond first called him nii-san and he made himself sick from crying when he had to leave him after being forced to leave Anbu by the Hokage.

Leaving Naruto left Kakashi numb for four and a half years and he coped by reading porn in public as well as spending most of his time in the memorial stone, being late for mostly everything and using Obito’s excuses for his tardiness. Reuniting with his little brother brought back all of his emotions. He was so happy when the blond recognized him that he was crying before he realized. After that, he just found himself crying again and again for various reasons, all of them connected to the little boy in front of him.

As he composed himself, Kakashi pulled Naruto to him in a one-armed hug and sighed in contentment before telling his little brother everything that had happened in his life in the time they were apart making the blond smile softly.

“I’m relieved that you had someone like Gai to distract you from loneliness.” Naruto confided, a soft laugh escaping from his lips. “Dad wrote a lot about him and he seems like a fun guy to have around despite all his eccentricities.”

“Yeah.” Kakashi whispered, closing his eyes. “I guess I haven’t been giving him the credit he deserves but he still sticks by me, no matter how much I ignore him or treat him badly. Gai is a much better person than I could ever be...”

“That’s not true, Kashi-nii.” Naruto insisted. “Gai is a great person, but you are too. You have been damaged by everything that happened to you before you were even an adult and that left you at odds with your own life but that doesn’t mean you are a bad person. Besides, I’m sure Gai would be happy with a simple thank you since he seems to have already forgiven you for everything.”

Kakashi just smiled and let himself bathe in his brother’s presence as the blond started to give him a complete and more truthful version of what Naruto did in the time they were separated.

“Ah!” Naruto exclaimed, remembering something. “Kashi-nii could you close your eyes and stay still for a few minutes? Do you trust me?”

The silver-haired male’s only answer was to close his eyes and wait patiently for the blond to do what he wanted as Naruto lifted his brother’s forehead protector and started to write around Kakashi’s Sharingan eye with the materials he had sealed in his pouch. When the Jounin was starting to wonder what was happening, he heard “Fuuin” followed by a sharp pain in his left eye before the pain disappeared after a second as well as the feeling of a constant drain on his chakra.

“Can you open your eyes, please?” Naruto asked.

As he complied, Kakashi noted that he could see properly, in addition to still not feeling the ever-present drain on his chakra and he looked at his brother in wonder.

“I sealed your Sharingan.” Naruto explained with a big smile. “I created this seal for you after understanding that the Sharingan was draining your chakra reserves even when you weren’t using it. This seal leaves a small black dot just above your eyelid but it stops the drain on your chakra. When you want to activate your Sharingan, you just need to force enough chakra to make the _Bunshin no Jutsu_ into the seal once and it will work as it always did. To deactivate it, you just need to pull the chakra that you had pushed into the seal to activate the Sharingan and it will automatically go back to being a normal eye.”

After a minute of stunned silence, Kakashi tried to do as the blond said a few times and noted that it worked perfectly before hugging Naruto and thanking him profusely.

“Do you give a dark grey or a dark green mask that you can give to me?” Naruto requested, suddenly. “It’s time to go to the Nara compound and I don’t want to have to use a _Henge_ anymore…”

Kakashi gladly offered his little brother the only dark grey mask that he had for Naruto to wear, pulling his own mask up and his forehead protector down to keep up the appearances while the blond removed his faded dark green hoodie from his hips and put it on to cover his hair as the mask covered his face before they disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

\---

When Shikaku got home after separating from the two brothers, he felt so dazed that he didn’t even greet his family as he sat on his living room floor and Yoshino looked baffled at her husband before exchanging a confused look with her son.

“Shikaku?” The woman prodded in a low voice, afraid of startling the Jounin.

“Yoshino.” Shikaku whispered in a pained voice, but it was loud enough for both his wife and his son to hear. “We failed our late friends so much. We didn’t take care of their sons and the boys were separated for four and a half years. What kind of friends are we?”

Yoshino was startled at how upset her husband sounded and moved to sit next to him before Shikaku turned to look into her eyes, his own shining with unshed tears as Shikamaru’s presence, who was completely lost to the conversation, was momentarily forgotten by both parents.

“However, those boys aren’t blaming us and even accepted to have dinner with us today.” The Jounin continued. “It seems that they only blame the Hokage but we have a lot to make up for.”

Yoshino wasn’t sure what Shikaku was talking about until she remembered that Kakashi had come to fetch her husband, before Shikamaru had come home, to help the silver-haired jounin with something about an hour earlier, only now coming back and talking about some late friends and their sons. 

When Minato and Kushina died, the Nara woman had tried to forget everything about them to ease her own pain but now she remembered that her friends had loved their ‘Kashi-kun’ as if he was their own son as well as the fact that Kushina was pregnant when the Kyuubi attack happened and everything suddenly clicked in her head.

“Kakashi and Naruto.” Yoshino murmured so only her husband would hear, tears running down her cheeks. “Naru-kun is Min-kun and Kushi-chan’s baby boy and Kashi-kun…”

“Is their adopted son that they loved as much as if he was biologically theirs.” Shikaku finished when Yoshino trailed off, his voice equally low.

Minato and Kushina had graduated with Shikaku and Yoshino. Kushina had ended up in the same team as Yoshino and they soon became not only best friends but something close to sisters. Meanwhile, Minato and Shikaku had bonded over being in love with two women who were like sisters and soon became each other’s best friend and brother, which was saying something for the brunette since he had a very close relationship with his teammates contrary to the blond who lost contact with his teammates after making Chunin by himself. It had hurt the Nara couple profoundly when their friends or better, their brother and sister, had died at 30.

“Well, we just have to make up to them, starting now.” Yoshino assured, trying to wipe her tears that kept falling from her eyes. “I’m going to start dinner.”

“I’ll take Shikamaru to Chouza’s and he will spend the night there.” Shikaku decided as his wife just nodded to him, hurrying into the kitchen before he turned to his son. “Pack a bag as fast as you can. You’re having a sleepover with Choji tonight.”

Shikamaru just did as his father asked silently, for once not arguing or opposing. The little Nara had never seen his father so close to tears or his mother crying so openly and he found a lump in his throat.

The short trip to the Akimichi compound was silent with Shikaku lost in his own thoughts and Shikamaru unable to dislodge the lump in his throat enough to speak, both Naras walking with their heads down.

The older man knocked on the door and a few seconds later, Chouza opened the door with a big smile that dropped as soon as he took in the sight in front of him.

“What happened?” The big and kind man asked, worried about his friend.

“Chouza.” Shikaku chocked out, his emotions threatening to overwhelm him sooner rather than later. “Could you take my son for the night, please? There’s something Yoshino and I need to do today.”

“Of course, Shikaku.” Chouza agreed, a little baffled about his friend’s state. “But is everything ok?”

“It will be.” The man from the Nara clan answered with a shaky smile. “Will you please keep this from Inoichi? It’s not something I can tell anyone until the end of the next Chunin Exams and I would prefer if I didn’t have him on my back prying for information.”

Chouza just nodded, understanding where his friend was coming from and putting a comforting hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder, who seemed to be very shaken by his father’s behavior.

“Thank you, Chouza. I really appreciate this.” Shikaku admitted, his voice shaking as he was very close to completely losing his composure before he turned to his son, kneeling to his level and letting his hands fall on the boy’s shoulders. “I’m sorry to worry you, Shikamaru. Be good for Chouza and I promise I will explain everything to you as soon as I get the green light from the people involved, ok? Everything will be alright.”

Shikamaru could only nod, finding himself unable to speak again, before his father shunshinned away.

As soon as Shikaku got to his home, he started to explain to his wife what he had done and what he had learned in the time he was with their nephews as they both broke down, crying in regret for not being there for the two boys, who ended up suffering alone for years.

\---

As Shikaku went home, Chouza guided Shikamaru inside his home and into his living room, taking advantage of the fact that his son and his wife were in the kitchen.

“Are you alright, Shikamaru?” The Akimichi questioned, softly. “You haven’t said a word.”

The young Nara gulped, trying to dislodge the lump in his throat to answer his father’s friend.

“I… I think I am.” Shikamaru began, staring at the floor. “I never saw my dad so close to tears before. I’m not sure what happened but my dad came home like that and he started talking with my mom. I was able to hear the beginning of the conversation but then mom started crying openly and she talked too quietly for me to hear what she said. I’m not even sure why she started crying, what my dad told her wasn’t something worse than other things that I have heard before… Mom hadn’t stopped crying when we left.”

Chouza was starting to worry about his friend but he knew that Shikaku wouldn’t appreciate it if he would go sniffing around and concentrated on trying to calm Shikamaru down.

“Listen, Shikamaru. I don’t know what is going on with your parents but your dad said that everything would be alright, didn’t he?” Chouza inquired as he smiled softly, receiving a nod from the boy. “Then don’t worry! I’m sure whatever it is, it will be alright.”

Shikamaru breathed out in relief as he knew that the Akimichi was right, his dad wasn’t one to make many promises but he always kept the few that he made.

“Thank you Chouza.” The young Nara said before going to find Choji.

“Oh, Shikaku. What could leave you in such a state?” Chouza whispered to himself, sadly.


	5. Team 7: new friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner at the Naras, team 7's true Genin Exam and a few more surprises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Three chapters in a week, this is some kind of a record but don't get used to it, I'm not sure if i can keep it up 😅  
> This is also bigger than the usual and, once again, don't get used to it, please...  
> Well, I hope you like it 🥰🥰🥰  
> Until next time 😘

Kakashi and Naruto appeared just outside Shikaku’s house and the blond knocked on the door as the silver-haired male tried to look nonchalant. As the old Nara opened the door, he immediately pulled the boys inside and closed the door behind them before guiding his nephews into the living room.

The two brothers exchanged a worried look after noticing the eyes of the older Jounin were red and puffy but before they could ask, Yoshino came into the living room, her brown eyes as red and puffy as her husband’s own black ones.

“Yoshino-san.” Kakashi acknowledged with a nod, smiling softly behind the mask.

Yoshino felt herself freeze and tears welled up in her eyes again much to the panic of the silver-haired man. Naruto quickly squeezed his brother’s hand to calm him before pulling his hood as well as his mask down and pulling the crying woman into a gentle hug.

Shikaku looked on as his wife apologized again and again to their nephew, who just hugged her silently and let her cry on him as Kakashi stood awkwardly to the side.

“There’s no need to apologize.” Naruto insisted firmly looking into the woman’s eyes and smiling gently, after Yoshino regained her composure, before turning to Shikaku. “Both of you.”

Kakashi nodded in agreement with the blond, making the two Naras smile softly at the two brothers before Shikaku led the younger males into the dining room while Yoshino went to fetch the food.

Naruto quickly took off his hoodie, his forehead protector and his mask just to seal them in his pouch as Kakashi put away his own forehead protector.

“Yo-your eyes.” Shikaku stammered in surprise. “What happened to your Sharingan?”

“Oh! I forgot about that...” Kakashi mumbled as his brother laughed softly. “Naru sealed it for me so it wouldn’t constantly feed on my chakra. Now I can activate and deactivate it at will but I think I will keep that a secret until I’m able to explain this new ability without having to lie.”

And as the silver-haired Jounin showed off, activating and deactivating his Sharingan a few times, Shikaku could only stare at Kakashi in shock and amazement before Yoshino came back with the dinner.

“You’re good at Fuuinjutsu, Naru-kun?” Yoshino inquired, having heard what they were talking about.

“Good isn’t the right word, Yoshino.” Shikaku commented, still in shock. “Not even Minato and Jiraiya-sama were able to seal Kakashi’s Sharingan. Naruto has to be a Fuuinjutsu Master better than those two put together to be able to create such a seal.”

“Actually, dad and Jiraiya never tried to work together on it, much less tried to ask mom for help.” Naruto explained, smiling at his uncle. “Besides, none of them had much time to even work on it properly either. I spent 6 months on it after I became proficient in Fuuinjutsu. It helps to have scrolls from three different Fuuinjutsu masters and an army of Kage Bunshins to help you learn but that doesn’t make it easy, not in the slightest.”

Kakashi laughed at the Naras’ shocked expressions.

“Naru has Kage level reserves.” The silver-haired man revealed. “That’s what happens when you have both Uzumaki blood and a Bijuu sealed inside you. I don’t think there’s anyone alive with bigger reserves than Naru and his are still growing.”

“The downside is that I have to work on my chakra control every single day or it gets messed up.” Naruto retorted, scowling at his brother’s amused face and making the older boy snicker.

Shikaku and Yoshino shook off the shock and smiled at their nephews’ silent banter before they all sat down and started to eat.

The diner was a calm affair with everyone trading stories about themselves as well as Minato and Kushina and getting comfortable with each other. At some point, the brothers started to call the couple, uncle Shikaku and aunt Yoshino at the later’s insistence.

“Would you two mind if we told Shikamaru about all this?” Shikaku questioned the brothers with a hopeful expression.

“Honestly, uncle Shikaku? I don’t really know Shikamaru.” Kakashi replied before turning to his brother. “What do you think, Naru?”

“I like Shikamaru.” Naruto informed them. “He thinks I’m a loud idiot so we never really talked all that much but I would like to get to know him better. Do you think he can keep all this a secret from everyone, uncle Shikaku? Even from Choji, his best friend?”

“Yes.” Both Naras nodded in affirmative.

“Then, ok.” Naruto decided. “However, I would like if you let me be the one to tell him if you don’t mind… You could tell him that he had an uncle and aunt who died in the Kyuubi attack as well as who they were and I would tell him the rest at dinner at my house, tomorrow.”

“That’s... Fair, Naru-kun.” Yoshino hesitated. “But will you be alright making dinner for all of us?”

“Don’t worry aunt Yoshino!” Naruto reassured. “I have my parents’ cookbook and I have been cooking for myself since I was eight. I’ll just have a couple of Kage Bunshins doing it for me and if I need any help, I’m sure Kashi-nii won’t mind lending me a hand.”

“Of course, Naru.” Kakashi smiled at his little brother who smiled back.

About an hour later, Kakashi fell asleep on Naruto’s shoulder despite all the conversation going back and forth and the blond patted his hair with a tender yet sad smile.

“He hasn’t been sleeping well since he was forced out of the anbu.” Naruto whispered sadly. “I was his only light, it almost killed him not to be able to see me. I’m so grateful to Gai because, for all his eccentricities, the man distracted him and kept him together. Gai took care of my brother when I couldn’t. And, while I know it’s not my fault, I can’t help feeling guilty for not being there for him.”

Yoshino and Shikaku listened silently before exchanging a pained look. The blond stood up and carefully made his brother lay down properly, putting a pillow below Kakashi’s head.

“Do you mind if Kashi-nii stays here tonight?” Naruto asked with a hopeful look.

“Of course not, Naru.” Shikaku answered. “You and Kashi are more than welcome to stay here whenever you want.”

“I appreciate it, uncle but I’m going to go home today.” Naruto said. “Kashi-nii is going to be testing my team tomorrow so it would be better if we didn’t have more contact until the true Genin Exam. Thank you for everything you did for us today! Goodnight auntie, uncle.”

The blond nodded at the Naras and disappeared in a swirl of leaves before the couple could say anything.

“These boys…” Yoshino sighed, patting Kakashi’s hair while Shikaku covered the silver-haired man with a warm blanket.

“I’m just glad they’re letting us be part of their lives after everything they went through.” Shikaku whispered, pulling his wife into his arms for comfort.

\---

Naruto woke up very early the next day and dressed like the prior night. He cooked a good breakfast for three people and packed it along with a few snacks and energy bars before running to the correct training ground to wait for his teammates.

The blond didn’t have to wait too long as the exhausted Sakura and Sasuke arrived a mere ten minutes after he did.

“Good morning!” Naruto teased good-naturedly, smiling behind his mask.

“Naruto?” Sakura asked, confused with the blond’s change of attire but said boy ignored her in favor of unpacking the breakfast he made.

“Why are you unpacking food?” Sasuke grunted.

“I’m not sure what Kakashi was thinking when he told us not to eat but we will be screwed if we don’t eat breakfast.” Naruto explained. “We’ll need energy and to work together if this exam is going to be nearly as hard as Kakashi said it would be.”

Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a look, remembering the lessons of the academy on nutrition before moving to eat the food their blond teammate was offering them.

The breakfast was a quiet affair but when they were almost done, his curiosity was too much for a certain dark-haired genin-hopeful.

“What is Kakashi to you?” Sasuke probed with a scowl, surprising both of his teammates.

“Family.” Naruto replied simply after a slight hesitation.

“But you two can’t be related!” Sakura protested. “You look too different.”

“You misunderstood me.” Naruto stated calmly. “I didn’t say we were related. Sasuke asked what Kakashi was to me and I answered. To me, Kashi is family. It doesn’t matter if we are related or not.”

 _‘Kashi?’_ Sakura and Sasuke thought, feeling a little shocked and confused about what they were told. The blond sighed in frustration at their expressions since he knew they wouldn’t leave it alone.

“I was kicked out of the orphanage on my third birthday because of something beyond my control.” Naruto revealed stoically. “Kashi was the one who found me but he was in anbu at the time so I only knew him for his code-name. The Hokage decided it was too dangerous to leave me in the orphanage again so he gave me an apartment and a team of anbu were given the mission of taking turns at taking care of me until I was 6 and protecting me from the shadows until I entered the academy.”

Sasuke and Sakura could only listen in stunned silence while the blond paused to take a shuddering breath before continuing. “However, Kashi was the one who was with me the most and he always treated me differently than the others, who were only concerned with the mission. He was the one who taught me to speak properly, count, write and read. He was the one who always listened to what I had to say, who helped me discern right from wrong and…”

Naruto choked on his words as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him.

“And?” Sakura whispered, swallowing to try to dislodge the lump in her throat while Sasuke seemed speechless.

“And he was the only person in the world to ever love me unconditionally after my parents. That’s why he is family, even if we aren’t related by blood.” Naruto finished.

The silence was deafening and the mood had plummeted.

 _‘Damn it! That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.’_ Sasuke thought in frustration.

 _‘Just how bad was his life?’_ Sakura wondered sadly.

Find nothing else to say, they finished eating in silence until something seemed to click on the raven’s brain.

“Then, how did you recognize him?” Sasuke demanded.

“Excuse me?” The blond blinked.

“How did you recognize Kakashi if he took care of you as an anbu and not as himself?” The Uchiha insisted.

“Oh! I read about Hatake Kakashi somewhere and I really admired him for his ninja abilities.” Naruto clarified. “It was only later that I associated him to his anbu persona.”

 _‘Not much later but they don’t need to know that.’_ The blond snickered internally before continuing.

“Before yesterday, I hadn’t seen Kashi for four and a half years.” He divulged. “And he didn’t tell me anything about this exam if you’re wondering.”

The silence returned as Sakura and Sasuke felt their heads spinning with all the information their teammate had dropped on them.

“Did he abandon you?” The only girl of the group voiced as if afraid to know the answer.

“No Sakura, Kashi would never do something like that.” The blond growled before calming down. “He confirmed to me yesterday that he was forced out of the anbu a couple of months before my eighth birthday and forbidden to take care of me as himself.”

Naruto let them interiorize what he said before turning to look at the raven in the eyes. “You know Sasuke? I, just like you, know what it means to lose someone. When Kashi disappeared from my life, the thought that he might have died passed through my head and it hurt so much, to be alone again. However, I can tell you something you don’t know. From the little I remember from before Kashi found me on the streets, it hurts much more to not have anyone from the beginning… At least, you have good memories of your family and you remember their love. Myself? While I know that my parents loved me because of some letters and their personal journals, I can’t remember them… How could I? They both died in the day I was born, protecting this village.”

Sasuke wanted to argue but he couldn’t since he knew that his blond teammate was the only one who had knowledge about being alone since the beginning and he felt petty. He always acted as if no one could understand his pain but here was someone who suffered much more than he did. Someone who was always alone and when he finally found someone, had that person taken away from him for four and a half years.

“How do you do it?” The raven asked. “How do you still smile and laugh despite everything?”

“And what do you propose I should do?” Naruto countered. “Crying and moping around won’t change anything. All I could do was accept that the villagers hate me, even if I don’t deserve it; accept that my parents are dead and aren’t coming back; accept that if I want to be recognized by everyone, I have to work for it because it won’t be given to me for free. I accepted all of those things and kept on living because I knew that my parents wouldn’t have liked to see me mopping around. I also knew that it would kill Kashi if he found out that something happened to me or that I couldn’t even smile anymore. Family can be chosen, Sasuke… You can’t get your clan back, no matter what you do. Then, why should you waste your life on revenge? You can still get to kill Itachi without making it the epicenter of your life. If you try to give a bit of yourself to people, you might find someone you can call family.”

Sakura didn’t know what to think anymore… All the preconceived notions that she had about her blond teammate were shattered like glass.

Sasuke felt something shift in his heart as he processed what his teammate said.

 _‘Crying and moping around won’t change anything, uh?’_ The raven mused. _‘He’s right. Even if I kill Itachi, I won’t get my clan back. Should I really make my life around killing my brother? If I don’t, I might find a family of my own and still be able to kill him...’_

A little uncomfortable with the prolonged silence, Naruto looked up to see a dazed expression on his female teammate and a peaceful smile on the Uchiha’s face.

“Was that why you hid your abilities and your real personality all this time?” Sakura questioned, her voice wavering. “Because the villagers hate you?”

“Yes.” Naruto smiled sadly. “Even if I showed my real ability, the teachers would try to sabotage me. When Iruka came to be our sensei, I thought about giving up on hiding but I never trusted Mizuki. And even if they didn’t sabotage me, the civilian council would. My best shot at being a ninja was entering the same team as the last Uchiha. Sorry, Sasuke.”

“It’s alright, I understand.” The raven affirmed, smiling bitterly. “You had no choice.”

Naruto nodded in thanks and closed his eyes to hide his frustration that the villagers’ treatment brought him. He jolted when he suddenly felt arms going around his torso and opened his eyes to an eyeful of pink hair as his female teammate started to cry on his chest. Not sure what to do since he once had a crush on the girl, he patted her shoulder awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, Naruto.” Sakura whispered, her tears staining the blond’s hoodie. “You suffered alone all this time and we never noticed. Worse, we actually contributed to your pain by ignoring you. How could we ever make up to you?”

The blond looked at Sasuke for help but found that the raven seemed to want to know the answer as well.

“I… You... Uh, we were never friends.” Naruto said. “None of you had an obligation towards me. At the time, I wasn’t really looking for friends, I was more concerned with my own training outside the academy and trying to find information about Kashi’s anbu persona… But, if you want, we can start anew and try to be friends.”

Sakura let go of the blond, wiping her tears away and exchanging a look with Sasuke while Naruto looked away in embarrassment.

“I would like that.” Sakura and Sasuke decided, speaking in unison and earning a smile from their teammate.

\---

Meanwhile, in the Nara compound, Kakashi woke up to the smell of food and was confused about his surroundings until he remembered the prior night.

“Good morning Kashi.” Shikaku yawned and sent his nephew a lazy smile after noticing that he was awake. “You fell asleep last night and we didn’t want to wake you up. Did you sleep well?”

“Oh…” Kakashi trailed off. “Yeah, I did. This was the best night of sleep that I had since I left anbu. Where is Naruto?”

“He went home last night after you fell asleep.” The older jounin informed him with a small smile. “He asked if you could sleep here but refused to stay because, since you will test his team today, he thought you shouldn’t have more contact with each other until the exam.”

“That sounds like Naru.” Kakashi snorted. “What time is it?”

“About 8 AM.” Yoshino answered coming from the kitchen to check on the two men. “Come on, breakfast is ready. Kashi-kun, you will eat with us and I won’t take a no for an answer so no arguing with me.”

The silver-haired jounin looked at the other man, who shrugged as if saying that it was a waste of time to argue, before nodding and following the woman into the kitchen.

As the three sat at the kitchen table, Shikaku and Yoshino watched as their nephew ate calmly, seeming in no hurry to leave.

“When does the exam start?” Shikaku inquired, curiously.

“Two hours ago.” Kakashi announced nonchalantly.

The couple exchanged a frustrated look before sighing. They knew that their nephew was renowned for being, at least, 3 hours later for mostly everything so they let it go and hoped that their other nephew could correct it for them.

“Thank you for the food, aunt Yoshino.” Kashi grinned, standing up. “It was delicious! And thank you for letting me stay the night as well.”

Both Yoshino and Shikaku just smiled at the young man, waving away his thanks.

“Then, I’ll be going. I’ll see you tonight.” Kakashi bowed before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

\---

At training ground three, the future Team 7 continued to wait for Kakashi as they talked quietly.

“Why were you in such a hurry to leave yesterday?” Sasuke probed.

“Oh, that?” Naruto remembered. “I went to the memorial stone over there. I come here to talk to them sometimes.”

 _‘That wasn’t my purpose yesterday but they don’t need to know that.’_ The blond thought, mentally blowing a raspberry.

“The memorial stone?” Sakura inquired, slowly.

“Yes, it’s where all the names of the people that were killed in action are.” Naruto informed. “Every single person was their names there, died protecting the village but don’t bother trying to find my parents’ names… They had a lot of enemies so until I make chunin, I can’t use their last name.”

Sakura and Sasuke frowned a bit but they decided not to ask and wait for the blond to tell them of his own volition.

“What about the change of outfit?” Sasuke asked, instead. “Why are you hiding your face and hair?”

“Well, the orange jumpsuit was part of the happy-go-lucky idiot facade.” Naruto laughed softly. “About hiding my face and hair, it’s because I look a bit too much like my dad to be safe. I was using a Henge when we were in the academy but using it on missions is too risky so I took to hide it with clothes.”

A comfortable silence installed itself after that as the three genins took to quietly enjoy the sun.

“How long do you think we still have to wait for our sensei?” Sakura grumbles.

“Well, it’s 8:30 so… About half an hour?” Naruto smiled fondly. “Just give him a break today, I’ll make sure he won’t be late anymore after today.”

\---

Shikamaru woke up to Chouji shaking his shoulder.

“What is it, Chouji?” The lazy Nara grunted sleepily.

“It’s time to wake up, Shikamaru.” The young Akimichi beamed. “We have our true Genin Exam today and we can’t be late.”

“Troublesome.” Shikamaru grumbled.

\---

Kakashi appeared at the training ground 3 at about 9 AM as his little brother predicted. After leaving the Nara compound, the silver-haired man stopped by his house to take a shower and change clothes before going to meet his future team.

“Yo!” The jounin waved with a smile hidden behind his mask.

“You’re late.” Sakura stated calmly, surprising her future sensei with her patience.

“Sorry.” Kakashi declared, not looking sorry at all. “I got lost on the ro…”

The jounin cut himself off when he saw his little brother glaring at him for lying so blatantly.

“Uh…” The silver-haired male shifted nervously. “The truth is that I fell asleep at my uncle’s house last night and didn’t wake up until 8 so I decided to take my time eating my aunt’s breakfast and then headed home for a shower.”

Naruto nodded approvingly at his brother who looked a bit exasperated.

“Oh! That actually makes sense…” Sakura offered with a kind smile. “You were already late anyway and, at least, that gave us time to get to know each other a bit.”

At that point, Kakashi just looked bewildered at his genins but decided to shrug it off and get to the exam.

“Anyway, today you have to ta…” The jounin started before trailing off as he finally noticed his little brother’s state: the slouched posture, the bags under his eyes, the redness around the corner of his eyes and he was crouched in front of the blond before anyone could blink. “You look tired. Did you even sleep tonight?”

Sakura and Sasuke watched as their sensei seemed to forget about their exam as the man fussed over their blond teammate.

“You have been crying. What happened?” Kakashi whispered frantically, only loud enough for Naruto to hear.

“Please, calm down Kashi-nii!” Naruto pleaded, equally quiet. “I slept well enough, just not as many hours as I would have liked... And nothing bad happened. Sasuke and Sakura asked me about you and I got emotional, they didn’t even notice that I was crying.”

As Kakashi still looked concerned, the blond grabbed the man’s hand and squeezed it softly before speaking firmly. “I’m fine. Don’t worry! Just get on with this exam.”

“Alright.” The jounin accepted with a sigh. “Like I was saying, you’ll have to try to take these bells from me.”

“But there are only two bells.” The pink-haired genin exclaimed as the man showed them the bells.

“Yes.” Kakashi nodded, smirking behind his mask. “That’s because only two of you will be passing, the other will go back to the academy.”

As expected, Sakura and Sasuke looked upset at the new information but the jounin was surprised when Naruto’s eyes glinted in understanding.

 _‘Why? We finally saw the real Naruto today and now Kakashi tells us that one of us is going back to the academy?’_ Sasuke thought with a frown. _‘Sakura isn’t so bad either when she isn’t fangirling… Why do we have to get separated now?’_

 _‘Damn it! I really want to pass!’_ Sakura raged internally. _‘But I don’t want any of them to fail either.’_

“Then, I give up.” Naruto announced, smirking behind his mask.

“WHAT!?” The others yelled in shock.

“You heard me.” The blond insisted, still smirking. “I give up. This way, it means that Sasuke and Sakura will automatically pass your test. I’ll find a way to be a shinobi either way.”

“No.” Sakura protested. “No way! If anyone deserves to be sent back to the academy, it’s me. I’m the one who wasn’t taking this seriously and I’m the weakest of the three. You and Sasuke should be the ones passing!”

“Then, I should be the one going back.” Sasuke demanded, surprising everyone. “I have only been thinking about getting revenge for my clan instead of focusing on protecting the village. You two should be the ones passing.”

Kakashi looked at the three determined genins for a few seconds and chuckled softly before something clicked in his brain.

“Of course!” Kakashi face-palmed. “I should have known better than to try to trick a genius.”

Sakura and Sasuke looked confusedly at the silver-haired man as Naruto kept smirking.

 _‘Specially one that knows my test.’_ Kakashi thought. _‘Naru read Minato-sensei’s journal, of course, he would know about the true propose of the bell test, idiot!’_

“You all pass!” The jounin sighed.

“What? Why?” Sakura gaped as Sasuke looks at him as if he had grown a second head.

“The point of this test was teamwork.” Kakashi explained. “I was going to see if you were still willing to work together if only two of you would pass and if you would try to protect your teammates from failure. However, Naruto seems to have found out the purpose of this test and gambled by trying to offer both of you the free pass which led on to you guys deciding to sacrifice yourselves for the others. So, you guys all pass.”

The trio smiled as Sakura and Sasuke processed what they were told, still a bit perplexed at Naruto’s ingenuity.

“A friend of mine told me something before he died that you should always remember. the ones who don’t follow the rules are trash but the ones who don’t care about their comrades are worse than trash.” Kakashi finished.

Naruto gave up on trying to stay professional with his brother and went to pull the jounin into a hug. He had already told Sasuke and Sakura that Kakashi is family so they won’t read too much into it.

“Obito and Rin’s deaths aren’t your fault.” The blond whispered, pulling his brother closer to him. “You are the only one who thinks otherwise. It wasn’t your fault!”

Naruto was so vehement that Kakashi found himself believing him and it was as if the weight of the world finally lifted from his shoulders as he sighed in contentment, hugging the blond back.

“Did you notice it, too?” Sakura inquired softly, making Sasuke look at her. “Naruto looked lonely and lost before Kakashi came but now he just looks at peace.”

“What did you expect?” The raven whispered back, harshly. “They were kept away from each other for four and a half years. Naruto needed to pass if they wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t be separated again. Even knowing that we passed, Naruto will probably still feel anxious for some time when they aren’t together. As of right now, we can’t possibly measure to Kakashi... We just offered him our friendship a couple of hours ago.”

“Wow! Isn’t that the most that you ever spoke in your life?” Sakura teased.

“Oh, shut up!” Sasuke grumbled but the corner of his lips turned up a bit even as he tried to contain a smile since he was finding this version of his female teammate much more pleasing than the one he knew from the academy.

The pink-haired genin still had remains of a crush for the raven but after the talk with Naruto, she came to know a bit about her blond teammate and found that the Uchiha isn’t as perfect as she first thought him to be so, unexpectedly, she wasn’t fangirling anymore. She actually felt a sudden camaraderie with Sasuke and liked to be able to tease him a bit in a friendly way.

“Now that we are, officially, Team 7, I would like to actually see what which of you can do.” Kakashi commented with a small smile. “Each of you will spar with me for twenty minutes. Try to use all of your abilities and come at me with intent to kill so I know where we can go from here, alright?”

The three genins nodded, Sakura and Sasuke a little uncertainly.

“Okay. Sakura first, then Sasuke and lastly Naruto.” Kakashi ordered before a terrifying thought crossed his mind. “Naruto, please, no Fuuinjutsu. I shudder to think about what you could do with it combined with a few Kage Bunshin.”

Naruto chuckled softly before sending a knowing smile at his brother who looked scared out of his wits.

“Personal experience?” Naruto joked, knowing perfectly well that his dad would put his brother and his teammates through trap courses made by Minato himself or by Kushina using Fuuinjutsu.

“Don’t remind me!” The jounin almost begged, clearly freaking out at the memories.

The blond just snickered quietly and Kakashi decided to start the first spar.

About an hour later, team 7 was sprawled on the ground panting hard. The ones in better shape were Sakura who had been the first to spare against Kakashi, thus having had more time to recuperate and Naruto who had monster stamina. The other two could barely lift their heads.

The spar with Sakura was mostly what the jounin predicted: she was good at the basics taught at the academy but she lacked physical strength and chakra reserves. Sasuke actually surprised him a bit: he was pretty good at Ninjutsu and Taijutsu for a fresh genin, besides his stamina and chakra reserves were also above average.

After the first two spars were over, both Sakura and Sasuke were on the ground panting harshly unable to move and Kakashi was still fresh. However, his spar with Naruto was above even his own expectations for the blond: Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, kunai and shuriken throwing, tactics, speed, stamina and chakra reserves all at levels no genin should be capable of, besides being able to instantly dissolve any Genjutsu the jounin threw at him.

At some point, Kakashi was actually forced to use his Sharingan to keep up with everything his little brother was throwing at him. Normally, he would be able to defeat Naruto in a few minutes but since the objective was to evaluate his genins, the jounin mostly kept at defense or dodging which meant that he ended up overwhelmed by all the attacks, forcing him to use his Sharingan which drained him faster with all the Jutsus he was using to defend against Naruto’s ones.

“I should have known not to underestimate you.” Kakashi breathed, twenty minutes after the end of the sparing still having some trouble sitting up. “How did you even find time to mix your parents’ Taijutsu styles together?”

“Well, neither of their styles seemed to fit me properly so I used a lot of Kage Bunshin to try to mix them up as well as any move that I saw on anyone’s style that could complement what I already had.” Naruto revealed, mostly recovered from the spar. “It’s still a work in progress, but it feels better than the alternative.”

“Yes. Thank God I remembered to forbid you to use Fuuinjutsu.” Kakashi said, finally forcing himself to sit up. “If you managed to fuse your parents’ knowledge about it, I don’t even want to think about what you can do with it.”

“Well, not quite.” Naruto declared smirking. “But I managed to fuse my parents and my godfather’s knowledge of Fuuinjutsu. I still can't do dad's Jutsu, though.”

Kakashi could only gape at his brother and shake his head in amusement.

“Do we even want to know?” Sasuke asked, trying to sit up.

“Let’s just say that if Naruto ever learns his dad’s Jutsu, you better thank every God in existence that he is loyal to Konoha.” The jounin replied in a deadpan voice. “And pray that it never changes.”

Sakura giggled nervously and Sasuke looked at the blond in amazement while Naruto rolled his eyes at his brother’s dramatism.

“So... What do we do now?” The blond wanted to know.

“Well, it’s still too early for lunch.” Kakashi informed them, expecting to hear their stomachs growl in hunger but one look at his brother’s covered face and he knew that Naru had seen through that plot as well. “This took less time than I expected so let’s get to know each other better, then have some lunch and you get the afternoon free. We start training tomorrow so you better rest for today.”

They did as the jounin said and at noon, the silver-haired man sent a Kage Bunshin to report to the Hokage while they ate. After lunch, they all separated, going to their respective homes with the exception of Kakashi, who went to the Namikaze mansion.

\---

At noon, in the Hokage tower, all the jounins who were given a new genin team were assembled to give their report to the Sandaime.

As expected by everyone, teams 1 to 6 failed miserably. When it came time to hear about the best students, both Kakashi and Asuma let Kurenai go first as the only woman in the group.

“Team 8 passed.” The female jounin reported. “Kiba and Hinata need a lot of work but they all have potential. They were able to find me as well as apprehend me in half of the time I designated for the test and they work well together.”

Satutobi nodded and turned to his son for him to give his own report.

“Team 10 also passed.” Asuma grinned behind his cigarette. “Those three work together as if they were born doing it. They have a lot of potential but they all have problems: Ino is a fangirl of the Uchiha brat, Shikamaru is too lazy and Chouji is too kind.”

The Hokage nodded again and turned to the silver-haired jounin.

“Team 7... passed.” Kakashi declared dramatically, gaining gasps from most of the jounins who knew that the man had never passed a team, before closing his eyes with a fond smile. “More like, they completely destroyed my test.”

Now, even Asuma and Kurenai’s eyes widened in surprise as Sarutobi blinked, confused.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand Kakashi.” The old man spoke calmly.

“As you know I give the bell test every year.” The silver-haired man started. “I took two bells out and told them that I only had two bells because only two would pass as the other would be sent back to the academy. I do this every year to see if the genins are willing to work together despite the situation. However, before I could say anything more about the test, Naruto said “I give up”.”

“Give up? Naruto?” Sarutobi demanded, his eyes seemingly ready to come out of its sockets in surprise.

“Yes. Surprising, isn’t it?” Kakashi continued with a smile covered by his mask. “He said that if only two could pass, I should pass his teammates and that he would find another way to become a shinobi. Before I could say anything Sakura protested against this and offered herself to go back to the academy but Sasuke wasn’t happy with the situation and demanded that I pass his teammates as, in his mind, he should be the one to go back to the academy.”

The silver-haired jounin was loving the shocked looks on everyone’s faces and felt pride bursting in his chest since he knew Sasuke and Sakura’s sudden change of attitude was his brother’s doing.

“So, what could I do but pass them?” Kakashi rhetorically questioned, smirking before bowing to Hiruzen. “It’s my fault that the test didn’t work properly, Hokage-sama. I should have known that the bell test wouldn’t stand a chance against Naruto and given them a different test.”

“I see…” Hiruzen nodded. “However, what you told me doesn’t seem like something Sasuke and Sakura would do. Do you have any idea the origin of this sudden change?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama. I believe Naruto has something to do with it.” Kakashi smiled. “I asked them to be at the training ground at 6 and I appeared at 9. From what they told me, they spent those three hours talking and getting to know each other. Whatever they talked about, Sakura seems to have stopped fangirling and Sasuke seems to have given up on that revenge crap so the only logical conclusion is that Naruto had something to do with it.”

The room was so silent that you could hear a pin dropping to the ground and then chatter broke off. Kakashi just stood nonchalantly grinning at the chaos that he created until one idiot dared to suggest that Naruto put the other two under a Genjutsu and suddenly a blast of killing intent flooded the room making the one who had made that comment kneel on the ground as it was mostly directed at him.

“No one, and I mean no one, insults Naruto. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?” Kakashi snarled, glaring at everyone in the room as his visible eye looked like he would suddenly shoot a laser out of it which was quite remarkable since he was merely a Kage Bunshin.

“Yes, sir!” Every single jounin in the room replied in unison.

Hiruzen looked on sadly as even he trembled slightly as Kakashi jumped to Naruto’s defense, once more reminded that he wasn’t able to protect the blond as he should have and that now it wasn’t even his job anymore.

“Kakashi, you’re dismissed.” The old man stated, deciding that it would be better to let the silver-haired jounin cool down since the meeting was mostly finished and he could always ask for more details later.

Kakashi’s Kage Bunshin nodded before dispelling and leaving the Hokage to scold the one who made that comment, in front of everyone, to make sure it doesn’t repeat. Not that it was needed, everyone was sufficiently terrified of what the silver-haired jounin could do with them if they were ever to say something of the sort after being warned not to.

Asuma and Kurenai exchanged a glance, silently deciding to look for their colleague later as they had never seen the man reacting like that before not knowing that they wouldn’t find him anywhere that day.

\---

After they separated from the other two, the Namikaze brothers got home and sat in the living room like the prior day.

“What happened at the Hokage’s office?” Naruto inquired, leaning into his brother. “You looked upset when your Kage Bunshin dispelled.”

“I can’t get anything by you, can I?” Kakashi sighed softly. “I… I mean, my Kage Bunshin lost control. Some jerk decided to suggest that you had put a Genjutsu on your teammates and my Kage Bunshin flipped… The good side is that I doubt that anyone that was in that room will ever talk crap about you ever again.”

“Kashi-nii, what did you do?” The blond frowned, worried that the jounin could have gone on a killing spree or something alike.

“It was my Kage Bunshin, not me.” Kakashi defended before sighing in defeat. “Well, my clone releases some killing intent strong enough to make the jerk kneel over and every single jounin in the room answered me as if I was the Hokage.”

Naruto chuckled. He should have known his brother wouldn’t have killed any Konoha ninja so easily... It would have been different if it was an enemy ninja but in Konoha ninjas’ case, Kakashi would at the most break a few bones as he beat them to a pulp.

The brother enjoyed the silence for a few minutes before Kakashi felt himself and Naruto starting to fall asleep and pulled his brother to him. When they woke up about 3 hours later, Naruto sent a Henged Kage Bunshin to shop for groceries leaving the original to spend time with his brother.

When the clone came back, Naruto and Kakashi decided to cook dinner together instead of letting the Kage Bunshin doing it as it was their first dinner together at the Namikaze mansion. However, while they were cooking, Naruto had sent a hundred clones to do chakra control exercises and work a bit more on Fuuinjutsu.

“Kashi-nii, I…” Naruto hesitated. “I would like if you came to live with me. I have more than enough space and I would feel better if you stayed here with me. I don’t want to be alone anymore…”

Kakashi felt a lump on his throat and merely nodded as he found himself unable to speak before he pulled his little brother into his chest, their eyes shining with unshed tears. When they calmed down, the jounin sent a clone with some of Naruto’s to pack his personal things from his apartment, intending on handing it over to the proprietary of the building first thing in the morning.

The rest of the afternoon was a calm affair and soon enough came the time for the dinner marked by a knock on the door.

\---

Shikamaru was in his thinking pose. He was having a ridiculously hard time concentrating after what had happened the prior night.

Team 10 had eaten together after Asuma had reported to the Hokage and they were now having a “team bonding” time which consisted of Asuma playing shogi with the young Nara as Chouji watched munching on his chips and Ino thought about “her” Sasuke-kun.

It was a few minutes before 4 PM that Nara Shikaku entered the training ground team 10 was using.

“Good afternoon.” The older Nara said, uncharacteristically serious. “I’m sorry Asuma but could you let me take Shikamaru home now? We have some family matters to solve.”

“Of course, Nara-sama.” Asuma offered. “You are always allowed to take Shikamaru for clan-related matters.”

“This has nothing to do with the clan.” Shikaku retorted, dryly. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked but merely inform you that I was taking my son.”

“Oh...” The younger jounin shifted, nervously. “Well, we aren’t training today so I don’t see why Shikamaru can’t leave early.”

Shikaku thanked Asuma shortly before shunshining away with his son leaving the wind-user wondering what happened to the two normally calm jounins he saw acting so out of character that day.

As the Nara duo appeared back at home, Shikaku guided his son to the living room where Yoshino was sitting down on a sofa waiting for them.

“Shikamaru, I promised you yesterday that I would tell you what is going on as soon as I got permission.” The jounin started. “It happens that it was decided that one of the people involved will be the one to explain everything to you so you’ll have to wait until tonight when we will go to his house for dinner. Meanwhile, there’s something else that we have to tell you...”

The younger Nara just sat listening attentively as Yoshino took over for her husband.

“We never told you this before because this is something that is very hard for us to talk about.” The woman declared. “There were two people very close to us that died in the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago. If they were so close to us that, if they hadn’t died, you would have grown up calling them aunt and uncle. We weren’t blood-related and they weren’t even part of the clan but, for us, they were our brother and sister.”

“Those two were not only some of the best shinobi and kunoichi that I ever met but also some of the best and kindest people.” Shikaku continued but his son still just listened. “Their names were Namikaze Minato and his wife Namikaze Kushina.”

Shikamaru was shocked, so shocked that he never connected what his father told his mother the day before with what his parents were telling him now.

“The Yondaime and his wife?” The young Nara asked, feeling dizzy.

“Yes, Shika-kun.” Yoshino answered sadly. “Min-kun and Kushi-chan were very dear to us, we wish you could have met them.”

Shikamaru felt that he could faint as he tried to process the information that the hero of the village was actually his uncle but after he calmed down, his parents told him quite a few stories about the man and his wife until it was time for them to go to the mystery person’s house.

The Naras appeared on the door of the Namikaze mansion in a swirl of leaves and Shikaku knocked on the door. Shikamaru marveled at the house that he had never seen as a silver-haired man that he had only seen in passing opened up the door and led them down the hall. The younger Nara noticed the photos of his aunt and uncle.

As they reached the living room, Shikamaru’s eyes widened as, despite the changes the person in question seemed to have undergone in the last day and a half, he recognized the boy sitting in one of the sofas smiling softly at him.


	6. Shikamaru and Gai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner with the Nara's and Gai is welcomed into the family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Before anything else, thank you for all the comments in the last chapter! I read every single one of them but didn't have the time to answer, sorry about that... 😅  
> Here's the new chapter! This one took longer than I thought, specially the last 1000+ words...  
> Anyways, I hope you like it! 🥰🥰🥰

“Hello, Shikamaru.” Naruto smiled softly at his cousin.

The young Nara’s eyes widened even further as he noticed that his classmate’s appearance wasn’t the only thing that changed but also the blond’s voice seemed to have softened and had added soothing quality to it.

“N-naruto!” Shikamaru stuttered before his mind started to work in overdrive and he reached the logical conclusion. “You’re the Yondaime’s son.”

“Quick as always.” Naruto grinned cheekily before turning to the older Nara to tease him. “Uncle Shikaku actually thought I was my dad.”

“Tch! You can’t blame me… You look a lot like Minato.” Shikaku retorted dryly. “I was so shocked that the first thing that I thought was that I was seeing my late brother again.”

Yoshino giggled while Kakashi and Naruto tried to stifle their laughter at the older Nara’s pouting face. Meanwhile, Shikamaru noticed that his parents seemed to be much more relaxed now that they were in Naruto’s company than they were the prior day and earlier that day.

“So…” The young Nara started. “Well, will any of you explain what is going on or will I have to keep guessing?”

Naruto chuckled softly as he led his cousin to the dining room, motioning for the adults to follow them. As they all sat down, the blond had a Kage Bunshin bring the food while he explained everything to his cousin. Well, everything except the fact that the adoption was signed yesterday instead of the day before Naruto’s birthday like they had told the Hokage.

As they started to eat, the only noise in the room beside the sound of the utensils was Naruto’s voice until he finished his story. When the blond finished, they tried to give Shikamaru a few moments for him to process the information he had heard.

“So Kashi…” Shikaku started after a while. “Are you feeling tired?”

“No.” Kakashi answered, as confused by the question as Yoshino and Shikamaru while Naruto’s eyes glinted in amusement as he caught where the conversation was going. “Why?”

“You seemed to have a little trouble moving when I saw you earlier today.” The old Nara smiled teasingly. “That was quite a spar.”

Kakashi’s eyes widened and he pouted behind his mask as his little brother and his uncle laughed at his expense.

“What? What happened?” Yoshino asked with a curious expression when no one seemed to want to explain it to her and her son.

“My little brother decided to destroy my test and his team passed without fighting me.” Kakashi informed with a fond smile. “Thus, I sparred with which of them individually for twenty minutes so I could access their skills. I was careless and ended up having to use my Sharingan when I was sparring with Naru.”

That made Shikamaru and Yoshino chuckle with the other two as the silver-haired jounin pouted again.

“This isn’t a laughing matter.” Kakashi snapped before shuddering. “I’m lucky that I remembered to forbid Naru from using Fuuinjutsu.”

That got everyone to stop laughing but provoked different reactions on the rest of the people in the room. Shikamaru looked confused at his older cousin, Naruto smiled knowingly at his brother while Shikaku and Yoshino exchanged a horrified glance before shuddering as well after remembering what their late brother and sister could do with seals.

“Dad put Kashi-nii and his team through some trap courses made by one or both of my parents with seals.” Naruto explained to his cousin, chuckling. “By auntie and uncle’s expressions, they probably encountered said courses at some point.”

Shikamaru chuckled at his parents’ horrified expressions but, inwardly, he was wondering if he should be afraid of ever encountering something that troublesome.

“By the way, what happened at the Hokage tower, Kashi?” Shikaku probed with a glint of concern in his dark eyes. “I heard some rumors that you were going berserk...”

“Oh…” Kakashi sweatdropped. “You see… uh…”

“Someone insinuated that I put a Genjutsu on Sasuke and Sakura, Kakashi got upset and sent a blast of killing intent around the room.” Naruto chimed in with a fond smile. “At least, no one died.”

“It wasn’t me, it was my Kage Bunshin!” The silver-haired man exclaimed, pouting in his brother’s direction. “And, well… I don’t like it when people talk crap about you. They don’t even know you…”

Naruto shook his head and smiled softly at his brother to calm him down.

“Let me see if I got this straight.” Shikamaru started, sounding bothered. “They think you are the dead last of the academy and have zero talent for the shinobi life but, at the same time, they accuse you of casting a Genjutsu on your teammates without anyone on your team noticing. That’s ridiculous! How can they be so contradictory?”

“Unfortunately, we will have to accept that, for now, the villagers and even some of the shinobi will have a double standard when interacting with Naruto.” Shikaku asserted bitterly. “We can’t do anything about this until Naruto reveals his parentage and shows the world who he really is. We’ll have to wait, Shikamaru.”

“Your father is right, Shika-kun.” Yoshino interrupted when the younger Nara seemed to want to protest. “Naru-kun and Kashi-kun trusted us with their secrets, the least we can do is to keep them.”

Shikamaru just nodded his head. Truly, he wanted to hit something but he knew that it wouldn’t solve anything so he just kept quiet.

“On the good side, I think the guy who dared to insult my little brother peed himself after seeing my face.” Kakashi joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Somehow, it worked because Naruto spat out the water he was drinking when he heard that making everyone laugh as the blond shouted: “you hadn’t told me that!” and the desert arrived right after.

\---

Kurenai and Asuma sat in the corner of a bar, the usual meeting spot for chunin and jounin to drink and talk, whispering frantically to each other. Anko and Genma, who were sat in a table near theirs, had sent a few jabs to tease the couple but as they went answered and seemingly unheard, they were starting to throw worried glances at their friends.

A few minutes later, Gai entered the bar and made a beeline to his fellow jounin sat in the corner, a little sad that his rival wasn’t with the new jounin senseis.

“Good evening, youthful friends!” Green clad jounin exclaimed while sitting at Asuma and Kurenai’s table. “How well did your youthful teams do?”

“They passed.” Kurenai answered dryly before her expression turned worried. “But, more importantly, have you seen Kakashi today?”

“No, I haven’t seen him since yesterday morning.” Gai informed them, frowning in confusion. “Why? Did something happen?”

“You didn’t hear, yet?” Anko pitched in with a smirk, pulling her chair nearer their table. “There’s a rumor going around that the cyclops has gone mad.”

“What?” Gai voiced, his frown never leaving his face as the new jounin senseis glared at Anko, worried about their colleague. “My youthful rival looked normal yesterday.”

“Well, he sure didn’t seem normal to me, today.” Genma claimed as he also pulled his chair nearer, starting to sweat and shivering as he remembered Kakashi’s killing intent. “He flipped because someone said something stupid about one of his Genins. I think Kakashi made the poor guy pee himself...”

“He passed a team?” Gai grinned. “Such a youthful bunch of genin, to gain my eternal rival’s approval!”

“But don’t you find it strange for the always lazy and indifferent Kakashi suddenly defend a simple genin so forcefully?” Asuma questioned, curious about what the jounin that was the closest to Kakashi had to say about it.

“For Kakashi, teammates are people to protect with his life.” Gai explained, uncharacteristically serious. “It’s the first time he accepts students of his own and he probably took a liking to them. Of one thing I’m sure, he never wants to lose his team again.”

“Let’s say he took a liking to his students in the short time he has known them, why would he become so upset about Uzumaki Naruto?” Kurenai wondered with a frown. “Kakashi doesn’t strike me for a person who would like a loud and obnoxious dead-last…”

“Oh! This is about young Naruto? Suddenly, it makes even more sense...” The green-clad jounin trailed off.

_Start of flashback_

Gai was looking for his eternal rival to challenge him as usual and after not finding him in the usual places, he headed towards the other’s house.

Before he could knock, Gai heard a crash and immediately entered the house through the window, quietly, to investigate. That’s when he found Kakashi sitting on the floor sobbing with his back to the window and broken glass on the floor near the opposite wall.

“Kakashi?” Gai called in an uncharacteristically low voice, worry slipping in it as he slowly neared his rival and crouched next to him.

The silver-haired jounin just turned to his only friend, looking at the green-clad man silently as tears ran down his, for once, unmasked face before he broke into sobs again, unconsciously leaning in his friend’s direction as Gai felt himself freak out for a few moments as he had never seen Kakashi in such a state, before pulling the crying man in an awkward one-armed hug.

“The Hokage ordered me to quit the ANBU.” Kakashi choked out between sobs, needing to tell someone.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Gai faltered. “You were always rushing to come back to the village faster.”

“That’s because I didn’t like to leave Naruto with other ANBU for too long.” The silver-haired man wailed. “Now that I’m not an ANBU anymore, I was forbidden, by the Hokage himself, to see him again until further notice.”

“Naruto?” Gai inquired, confused. “The Kyuubi’s jinchuuriki? I don’t understand.”

“Naruto is Minato-sensei’s son!” Kakashi almost yelled. “He is the only family I have left, my precious little brother. Now, I can’t even see him anymore.”

Gai’s eyes widened as he processed what his rival told him since he knew better than anyone how close the silver-haired man was to the fourth Hokage.

“I’m sorry, Kakashi.” Gai whispered. “I didn’t know that.”

“It’s an SS-rank secret.” Kakashi whimpered. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you…”

Gai just nodded silently, understanding the unspoken message of not telling anyone and let the other cry.

“What is he like, your little brother?” The green-clad man asked softly.

“He is the perfect combination of his parents.” Kakashi answered with a small sad smile. “He is a calm genius like Minato-sensei and incredibly creative to the point of becoming completely unpredictable like Kushina-san. And he is so unbelievably kind, caring, and mature above his years.”

“He sounds like a very youthful child.” Gai smiled tenderly.

_End of flashback_

“-ai! Gai!” Anko shouted, shaking the man in question.

“Eh?” The green-clad jounin blinked, confused.

“You spaced out.” Kurenai observed, frowning in worry. “We asked what you meant by what you said.”

“Ah! I’m sorry but it’s not something for me to say.” Gai replied with an apologetic smile and his heart felt heavy after his flashback.

Around the time Kakashi was forced to quit ANBU, Gai along with Kurenai and Asuma had told the Hokage that they were worried that the silver-haired jounin had been in ANBU for too long since he was always rushing to come back to Konoha. Therefore, the green-clad jounin always felt guilty for his contribution in separating Naruto from Kakashi after coming to know how much the little blond really meant to his rival and friend.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going home now.” Gai said and stood up without waiting for an answer, being half-way towards the door before his companions could collect their bearings.

Anko and Genma exchanged a glance before shrugging but Asuma and Kurenai quickly got up to follow the eccentric man.

“Gai, wait!” Asuma called as they reached outside. “We looked for Kakashi after our teams’ training and we couldn’t find him. When we went to his house, his clothes and his personal things were all gone.”

“WHAT?” Gai shouted. “Why didn’t you tell me that first? Have you report that to the Hokage?”

“No, we thought that you might know something.” Kurenai commented with a frown. “We were waiting to talk to you before reporting it.”

“Let’s go, then.” Gai told his companions before rushing to the Hokage tower with the other two hot on his heels.

\---

For the second time in less than two days, Hiruzen jumped as his office’s door was slammed open.

“Hokage-sama, Kakashi is gone.” Gai yelled, near tears.

“Gone?” The older Sarutobi asked, eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

“Asuma and I looked for him everywhere in the village after we finished with our teams and when we went to his house after, his clothes and personal things were gone.” Kurenai reported.

“Ah!” Hiruzen said as he visibly slumped in relief and smiled, albeit sadly.

“What kind of answer is that?” Asuma growled, shaking in anger and glaring at his father. “We just told you that one of our best jounins disappeared and you just sit there doing nothing!”

“I’m almost certain that I know where Kakashi is, Asuma.” The old man informed his son with a slight glare. “I’m sure he will come here first thing in the morning to deliver his key from his old flat.”

“Where is he, then Hokage-sama?” Gai pleaded, eyes shining with unshed tears.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you.” Hiruzen admitted, smiling sadly at Gai. “He is still in Konoha but I’m not sure where their house is. All I can tell you is that, if I’m right, he is happier where he is.”

Gai felt himself calm down as he knew there was only one person alive that could make Kakashi happier. If he read the Hokage right and the silver-haired man was with Naruto, the green-clad jounin was sure that his friend was better where he was.

“Thank you, Hokage-sama!” Gai exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear as he bowed at the leader of the village and rushed out of the door with a spring in his step leaving the other occupants of the room looking after him, confused.

“I don’t get it! We didn’t learn anything, why was he so happy?” Asuma lifted an eyebrow.

“He knows something that we don’t.” Kurenai stated. “Don’t you remember? Back in the bar, he said that it made even more sense that Kakashi got mad at the person that insulted one of his students after we told him that it was about Naruto but then, he refused to explain. If he knows something about that, he probably also knows where Kakashi is now…”

Asuma just grunted in agreement and the two left the old Sarutobi to his thoughts.

\---

The Nara couple was sitting on a sofa in front of Kakashi as Naruto and Shikamaru sat on the other side of the room playing shogi. The younger Nara had to explain the rules to the blond first because the later had never played it before but the two were unexpectedly even.

“Quit screwing around!” Naruto suddenly yelled while shaking with rage after slamming his hand on the shogi board sending the pieces flying everywhere much to everyone else’s shock. “If you’re not going to take the shinobi life seriously, you better quit it now!”

Kakashi’s eyes widened as he knew that Shikamaru had hit a nerve and, while he wanted to go to his brother’s side to comfort him, he also knew that he had to let Naruto continue his rant.

“You want to be an average shinobi and retire early?” The blond went on, his beautiful face contorted with rage. “What are you going to do when you can’t save your teammates because you weren’t good enough due to your lack of training, Shika? How will you live with yourself if your precious people get killed because you were too lazy to be more than an average shinobi?”

Finished with what he wanted to say, his rage drained and tears started to run down his face. As soon as he saw the first tear slipping out of Naruto’s eyes, Kakashi was instantly at his little brother’s side, pulling the boy’s shaking figure into his chest and running a gloved hand through the soft blond hair while murmuring comforting words.

Shikaku sighed as he watched his two nephews cling to each other and his son stood frozen in shock after being yelled at.

 _‘Minato and Kushina weren’t average ninjas but even they lost people dear to them and, later, their own lives.’_ The jounin commander remembered. _‘Naru has all the reason to be upset. Maybe this outburst can prevent the loss of a few lives, including Shikamaru’s. For now, it’s better if we go home and let Kashi take care of his little brother.’_

“It’s getting late, I think it’s time for us to go home.” Yoshino informed her nephews since she was thinking along the same lines as her husband.

“You don’t have…” Kakashi started, not letting go of his little brother.

“Yes, we do.” Shikaku insisted with a serious expression. “You only got Naru back yesterday, you clearly want to spend some more time alone with each other. Besides, you two need some rest after everything that happened in the last two days. We will keep in touch, alright?”

The silver-haired jounin finally acquiesced as his little brother left his arms to give a quick hug to both their uncle and aunt before flying back into Kakashi’s arms. With a last wave to the brothers, Shikaku took hold of his son as well as his wife and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

\---

As soon as they reached home, the older male Nara dumped his son on the sofa while Yoshino disappeared into the kitchen, deciding to leave this particular matter to her husband.

“Shikamaru?” Shikaku whispered softly, trying not to startle the still frozen boy who blinked a few times before turning to his father with a lost expression on his face. “I’m sure Naru didn’t mean to yell at you but what you told him hit a sore spot. Minato and Kushina weren’t just average ninjas but they still died; Kakashi isn’t an average ninja either but he still lost all of his teammates.”

Understanding started to dawn on the younger Nara as his father explained Naruto’s reaction to his dream.

“Naru worked on his shinobi skills for almost four years with the help of Kage Bunshins with the intention of, one day, surpass his parents and every single ninja that ever existed so he can protect the people he calls family and friends as well as his teammates.” Shikaku continued. “At the time, it was only Kakashi on that list but now the three of us, along with his teammates, are in it too and Naru wants to make sure that nothing happens to us.”

“Then, I guess I’ll have to become the best shinobi I can possibly be so I can take some of the weight out of his shoulders.” Shikamaru decided, his determination clear in his eyes before rubbing the back of his head in resignation. “Troublesome!”

Shikaku smiled knowing his son and his nephew would be alright.

\---

The two brothers continued to cling to each other well after the Naras went home.

“I’m sorry.” Naruto finally spoke. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper.”

“No, you don’t have to apologize, I would probably have reacted the same way.” Kakashi refuted, tenderly. “What you said to Shikamaru might very well save his and his teammates’ lives someday. Shika-kun seems to be developing the same talent for tactics that his father has and, while that is enough for him to become more than an average shinobi if he trains his body and chakra properly as much as he trains his brain, it will make an even better shinobi out of him.”

The blond just nodded and smiled softly, basking in his brother’s presence as much as possible before it was time for them to go to sleep.

\---

At half-past five the next morning, Naruto sneaked out of the house after leaving a Kage Bunshin to make breakfast for three while he went to the training grounds in search of a certain green-clad jounin. It didn’t take too long for the blond to find Gai training and he started to approach the man cautiously, not wanting to startle someone who could kill him in seconds if he was perceived as a threat.

“You are Maito Gai-san, right?” Naruto asked softly and as non-threatening as possible.

The older male turned in the direction of the innocent-sounding voice and was surprised to see a teen wearing a mask alike Kakashi’s and a hoodie that hid their hair.

“Yes, I am Maito Gai.” The jounin whisper-yelled, feeling the need to be quieter than usual around the teenager in front of him but still striking his nice guy pose.

“I know this might sound suspicious but I would like for you to trust me and follow me to my home.” Naruto pleaded in a small voice. “I have something I need to talk to you about but this isn’t the place for such a conversation. I promise I won’t try to harm you in any way! Not that I would be able to…”

Gai looked at the teenager critically for a few seconds before agreeing to follow him. Like the boy had said, it sounded suspicious but something about the teen’s chakra made the jounin feel that he could trust him so he left his summon to warn his apprentice that he would only arrive in time for the team’s training and followed the unknown boy home.

When they reached his home, instead of entering, Naruto circulated it and took the green-clad jounin into the grounds in the back of the house.

“My father made sure to make this area sound-proof so he could train early in the mornings and not waking up my mother when they would finally move here.” The blond explained. “This way, no one will hear us.”

“I see…” Gai nodded. “Then, what did you need to talk about?”

The younger male slowly took off his hoodie and mask, revealing what he looked like much too the surprise of the jounin whose eyes widened dramatically.

“I apologize for all the secrecy until now, my name is Namikaze Naruto and it’s very nice to finally meet you.” The blond greeted with a soft smile.

Gai tried to speak but, for once, he found himself speechless and sat on the ground to try to regain his bearings while the younger of the two silently sat beside him and waited patiently for the older to talk.

“You look a bit different from the last time I saw you.” The jounin managed to get out. “How do you know about me?”

“I look a bit too much like my father so I have been using the Henge on my hair and face to disguise it along with my idiot facade.” Naruto explained. “Now, how do I know about you? Dad wrote quite a few things about you in his journal. You were always one of the closest people to Kakashi so you appeared regularly on Dad’s daily records.”

The blond let this information sink on the Jounin’s mind before getting to the point of why he called the older male to his home.

“Thank you for always taking care of my brother, Maito-san!” Naruto exclaimed as he bowed deeply at the man who had been Kakashi’s pillar of support for over twenty years.

Gai spluttered, unsure of how he found himself in such a situation. The green-clad man had always followed his claimed eternal rival around and challenged him constantly but he was never thanked for doing so, which caught him off-guard.

“Of course, youthful friend! It’s my job to take care of my eternal rival” The jounin said striking a nice guy pose before starting to yell about youth.

“Maito-san?” Naruto called in a near-whisper, interrupting Gai who instantly fell quiet. “You don’t need to yell to get my attention, you already have it.”

The jounin was thrown into another loop. As the blond stood there in front of him with a soft smile, the man could finally understand why Kakashi described the boy as ‘unbelievably kind, caring, and mature above his years’. Naruto saw through Gai’s mask so easily that it wasn’t even funny.

“And you don’t need to be so formal with me, young Naruto.” The jounin finally spoke, smiling softly at his eternal rival’s little brother. “Call me Gai.”

“Thank you, Gai.” Naruto smiled back. “Kashi-nii should be waking up soon. Do you want to eat with us?”

 _‘Kashi-nii?’_ The older male thought in wonder. _‘I never thought Kakashi would accept such a cute name, but I guess he couldn’t say no to his beloved little brother.’_

“I don’t want to intrude.” Gai decided with a sad smile.

“You’re not intruding.” Naruto asserted. “I invited you because I want you here. I would like to talk with you some more and, even if he doesn’t admit it to you, Kashi-nii likes to spend time with you. Please, Gai! Please, stay for breakfast!”

 _‘What am I saying?’_ The jounin wondered as he closed his eyes in resignation. _‘I can’t say no to him either.’_

“Alright, I’ll stay.” The man said out loud gaining a blinding smile from the younger male as he was pulled into the house.

\---

Kakashi woke up and immediately panicked when he saw that his little brother wasn’t at his side but relaxed after he felt the boy’s massive chakra in the kitchen.

Naruto had come to Kakashi’s bedroom in the middle of the night as if to make sure that his older brother was really in his life again, that it wasn’t a dream so the jounin had pulled the blond into his bed and let the boy cry in relief all over his chest until they both fell asleep.

Not even bothering to get dressed or put his mask on, he stood up from the bed and went into the kitchen only to pause at the door when he saw his green-clad friend sitting at the kitchen table before shrugging and entering the kitchen.

“Good morning, Kashi-nii!” Naruto greeted with a tender smile that never failed to melt the silver-haired man’s heart.

Kakashi walked to the blond and pulled him into his arms before kissing the top of his head. “Good morning, Naru. What is Gai doing here?”

Gai’s eyes almost fell out of its sockets when he saw how relaxed and happy the silver-haired man looked with the blond in his arms.

“I wanted to talk to him about something so I brought him here and ended up inviting him for breakfast.” Naruto explained while hugging his brother back. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, I wanted to talk to him too.” Kakashi reassured his little brother before turning to his friend with a small smile. “Good morning, Gai.”

The green-clad jounin couldn’t even muster any kind of response. He had never seen the silver-haired man behave like that in all the years he had known him. Kakashi was always a bit dismissive of him so Gai was very surprised to have his normally aloof friend smiling at him.

“I’m sorry, Gai.” Kakashi whispered, sadly after seeing the surprise on his friend’s face. “I haven’t been the best of friends to you, have I? You deserved better from me. Thank you for always standing at my side despite all of my shortcomings.”

Seeing the regret on Kakashi’s face and Naruto’s small, prideful smile aimed at the silver-haired male, Gai smiled softly at his best friend since childhood. The green-clad jounin could finally see a glimpse of what Hatake Kakashi would have been like if he hadn’t lost his dad at such a young age and his entire team later on.

“It’s alright, Kakashi.” Gai answered with a small smile. “You weren’t in a good place before. I’m happy that you’re happy now. However, I feel that I have to apologize too.”

The silver-haired man went to protest but was quickly interrupted by the other jounin. “Around the time you were forced out of the Anbu, I went to talk to the Hokage. I was concerned about you and I thought that maybe you were too long in Anbu… My voicing my concerns led to the Hokage forcing you out of the Anbu, away from Naruto and I’m very sorry for it.”

“Gai, you didn’t know!” The blond exclaimed with a frown.

“Naru is right, Gai.” Kakashi asserted. “I can see why my rushing to come back to the village could be seen as having spent too much time in the Anbu. There is nothing to forgive but, if it makes you feel better, you’re forgiven.”

Gai just smiled and they proceeded to eat while talking about various different topics, from the happenings around the village to details of their lives.

\---

After giving back the key of Kakashi’s old apartment to the Hokage, the two brothers walked at a sedated pace to the training ground as they still had time before the meeting time.

“Gai was much calmer than usual.” The jounin commented, sounding off-handly but with curiosity shining in his eyes. “How did you managed that?”

“I didn’t do anything special.” Naruto chuckled. “I just told him that he didn’t need to use his mask around me.”

“Mask?” Kakashi echoed, confusion clear on his single visible eye.

“Yes, those loud exclamations of ‘youth’ are all his coping mechanism.” The younger male explained. “Didn’t you ever found strange that he was suddenly spouting things about ‘youth’ after his father’s death? That was his way of coping with it and, later, his shinobi life.”

The silver-haired man was newly amazed at his little brother’s perceptiveness. He had known Gai for years and he had never noticed that he was wearing a mask right in front of everyone’s eyes. Before he could think of what to say, they had reached the training ground as both Sakura and Sasuke had just arrived too so he just started their first training as an official team.

**Author's Note:**

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